fflSTORICAL MD REVOLUTIONAET 
INCIDENTS 

or TBB 

EARLY SETTLERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

WITH 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE LIVES 



ALLEN, BOONE, KENTON, AND OTHER 
CELEBRATED PIONEERS. 



By 0. W. WEBBER, 

AUTHOR OF "THB HUNTER NATURALIST," "SHOT IN THE ETE," "OLD HICKS, THB OUIDK,* 

"OOLD MINES OF THE GILA," "CHARLES WINTEKFIELD PAPEES," 

ETC., ETC., ETC. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

DUANE RULISON, QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE, 

33 SOUTH THIRD STREET. 

1861. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

DUANE RULTSON, 

In the Clerk's OflBce of the District Court of the United States, in 
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






PREFACE. 



The following work contains an authentic narrative 
of many of the most remarkable and thrilling events 
which have occurred during the past history of the 
United States. Commencing with the formation of the 
London Emigration Company, which sent forth the first 
hardy and adventurous colonists to Virginia, it presents 
the most thrilling incidents and catastrophes of American 
history down to the conclusion of the second war be- 
tween this country and England. Nor is the work 
confined merely to political and military history. It 
also presents a view of some of the most interesting 
religious and missionary movements which have been 
put forth at an early day for the conversion of the 
Indian tribes to Christianity. 

An explanation, and perhaps an apology, may be 
necessary to justify the frequent use which the writer 
has made throughout the work of the word " Sam." If 
not properlv understood, this term will seem absurd and 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

in bad taste ; if, on the contrary, the reader obtains the 
proper idea involved in it, and intended to be conveyed 
by it, it will not only appear justifiable but command 
his respect. In the popular phraseology of the day, this 
word has become familiar as the representative of the 
Government and the people of the United States. It 
involves also the idea of the native-born inhabitants of 
the land, in opposition to the foreign element which helps 
to make up the immense and heterogeneous aggregate 
of our existing population. In using this word " Sam," 
therefore, the author was justified, inasmuch as it is a 
term already familiar to most readers. 

But the writer has somewhat enlarged and expanded 
the meaning which he attaches to this word. By it 
he intended to signify and embody the conception of 
"Young America," of the "Genius of American Liberty," 
of the " Onward Pathway of Destiny and Empire." 
All these grand and imposing conceptions the writer em- 
bodies, and wishes to express, by the use of this laconic 
epithet; and if the reader, in perusing these diversified 
and checkered pages, will bear this explanation in me- 
mory, he wiU in all cases readily penetrate the meaning 
of the writer, and never be incommoded by any appar- 
ent obscurity. 



TABLE or CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I, 



Formation of the London Company for the Settlement of Vir- 
ginia — Birthplace of Capt. John Smith, and early crosses — 
Enters the service of Austria — Single combats in presence of 
both armies — Prisoner among the Tartars — Romantic adven- 
tures and escape — Joins the London Company — Prisoner among 
the Indians — Saved from death by the youthful Pocahontas — 
Other achievements in America 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Historical depreciation of " Sam's" Southern children — Abusive 
epithets current — Contrast with the first Northern Settle- 
ments — Who, apparently, under the ban of Providence ? — Who 
were the Discoverers and Explorers of the New World ? 17 

CHAPTER III. 

Prosperity of the Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Capt. 
Smith — Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great Massacre 
of the Settlers 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

Origin of " First Families" in Virginia — Auction of wives to the 
Virginians — " Sam's" idea of Aristocracy — Virginians obtain 
the right of trial by Jury — of Representative Government 
also — Religious toleration, first granted them, repealed 28 

CHAPTER V. 

Repeal of Charter of London Company — The Bacon Rebellion — 
Death of Bacon, and character of same 33 

CHAPTER VI. 

A new mystery — The rise of Luther, and Protestant wars — Ad- 
vent of the mystery of Jesuitism 38 

1* (5) 



6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order — Spiritual exer- 
cises — The Weeks — The Contemplations — Loyola a Pilgrim 
to the Holy Places — His persecutions — His first disciples, 
Xavier, Le Fevre — Lainez and Rodriques vow to go to the Holy 
Land and convert Infidels — Vow of perpetual chastity and 
poverty — The vow of unquestioning obedience — Refusal of the 
Holy See to recognize the Order — Cunning vow of obedience 
to the Pope — Obtains his recognition — Bull of recognition. . . 42 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued iu 
the New World — Cant of Bancroft the Historian — Illustra- 
tions — Martyrdom ? — Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions — 
League of the Iroquois — Intrigues of the Jesuits — First Inter- 
colonial War — Predominance of Jesuit Instigation 52 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial War" between 
" Sam" and the Order of Jesuits — The Order not quite ready 
for formidable operations in the South — Retrospective glance 
at acts and influences of the Catholic Priesthood in Mexico 
from the Conquest — Evidence of Clavigero, the Catholic His- 
torian of Mexico — The monstrous destruction of the archives 
of Historical Pictures in Yucatan by an " Ecclesiastic" — De- 
struction of the most precious Arts, which were common 
throughout Mexico 67 

CHAPTER X. 

Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico — 
Antiquarian researches concerning the first Missions to New 
Mexico — Conquest of California — Various efforts to penetrate 
the mysterious gold region by the Catholic governors of Cal- 
ifornia — Extermination of the Catholic Spaniards of the Con- 
questator-Occupation — Hidden ruins and strange Traditions — 
Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities — Marvelous treasures 
won by Cortez from Montezuma 72 

CHAPTER XI. 

Alas, Poor Mexico ! — Marquette and Joliet — La Salle — His 
pretended retirement from the Order of Jesus — His Fur Mo- 
nopoly — He descends the Mississippi to its mouth — His 
Death — Remarks — Commencement of the Second Intercolonial 
War 89 



TABLE OP CONTENTS. ^ 

CHAPTER XII. 

Commencement of the final struggle between the French and 
English for the country on the great Lakes and the Missis- 
sippi — Fourth Intercolonial War 115 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Hildreth's account of the Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth 
Intercolonial War — Accession of George III. — The English 
masters of the Continent north of the Gulf of Mexico and east 
of the Mississippi 146 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Condition of the Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Inter- 
colonial War — Theory of the English Parliament — Grenville's 
Scheme of Colonial Taxation — Passage and Repeal of the 
Stamp Act 167 

CHAPTER XV. 

Dawn of the Revolutionary Period — Humorous " History of John 
Bull's Children" — Contrast between causes which led to the 
Revolution of 1688 in England, and those which led to the 
American Revolution ; from Judge Drayton's Charge in 1776. 185 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Townshend's Scheme of Colonial Taxation — Repeal of the new 
taxes, except that on Tea — Local Affairs — Trade of the Col- 
onies — Attempt to collect the Tax on Tea — Reminiscences of 
the position of the Tea Ships at Boston — Destruction of the 
Tea in Boston Harbor 196 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The troubles thicken — Gage reinforced — Assembly of the first 
Continental Congress at Philadelphia 213 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Gage's 
Proclamation exempting from pardon John Hancock and 
Adams — Battle of Bunker Hill 239 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The first Sea Fight, and origin of the United States Navy — 
Ethan Allen taken captive and sent to England — Capture of 
St. Johns and Montreal — The Expedition against Quebec — 
Reorganization of the Army — Lord Howe in Boston — Move- 
ments of the British in Virginia 259 



8 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XX. 

The Settlements in the "West — Biography of Boone, by Himself — 
Biography of Simon Kenton 290 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Interesting Sketch of the Life of General Stark, the Hero of 
Bennington — The Battle of Bennington — Boston a century 
ago — Captain William Cunningham 308' 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan — The Non-Resistant Prin- 
ciple of the Quakers — Its consequences about these times. . . . 33T 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Treaty with France — The Progress of the War, North and 
South — The Cowpens — Yorktown — Surrender of Oornwallis — 
Letter from General Washiiigton 350 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Trouble with the Indians — Tecumseh's League — General Har- 
rison — Battles with the Indians — The British treat with them — 
Death of Tecumseh 365 

CHAPTER XXY. 

Causes of the War — Debates in Congress — Extracts from Mr. 
Clay's Speeches on the different phases of the War Question. . 391 



HISTORICAL 

AND 

REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 



\ CHAPTER I. 

Formatiox of the London Company for the Settlement of Virginia — Birth- 
place ofCapt. John Smith, and early crosses — Enters the service of Aus- 
tria — Single combats in presence of both armies — Prisoner among the 
Tartars — Romantic adventures and escape — Joins the London Com- 
pany — Pris«ner among the Indians — Saved from death by the youthful 
Pocahontas— Other achievements in America. 

Prior to the year 1607, a period of one hundred and fif- 
teen years froia the discovery of San Salvador, hy Columbus, 
attempts had been made to effect settlements in various parts 
of North Amerif^a ; but no one proved successful until the 
settlement at Janestown. 

In 1606, King James I, of England, granted letters patent, 
an exclusive right or privilege, to two companies, called the 
London and Plymouth Companies, by which they were au- 
thorized to possess the lands in America, lying between the 
34th and 45th degrees of north latitude ; the southern part 
called South Virginia, to the London, and the northern, called 
North Virginia, to the Plymouth Company. 

Under this patent the London Company sent Capt. Christo- 
pher Newport to Virginia, December 20, 1606, with a colony 
of one hundred and five persons to commence a settlement on 
the island Roanoke, now in North Carolina. After a tedious 
voyage of four months, by the circuitous route of the West 
Indies, he entered Chesapeake Bay, having been driven north 
of the place of his destination. 

Here it was concluded to land ; and proceeding up a river, 
called by the Indians Powhattan, but by the colony, James 
river, on a beautiful peninsula, in May, 1607, they began the 
first permanent settlement in North America, and called it 
Jamestown. 



10 Historical and 

The government of this colony was formed in England Ij 
the London Company. It consisted of a council of seven per- 
sons, appointed by the Company, with a president chosen by 
the council from their number, who had two votes. All nat- 
ters of moment were examined by this council, and determmed 
by a majority. Capt. Newport brought over the names of this 
council, carefully sealed in a box, which was opened after 
their arrival. 

Among the most enterprising and useful members of this 
colony, and one of its magistrates, was Captain John Smith. 
As he acted a distinguished part in the early history of the 
colony of Virginia, a brief sketch of his life will be 
interesting. 

He was born in Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 
1579. From his earliest youth, he discovered a roving and 
romantic genius, and appeared irresistibly beut on extrava- 
gant and daring enterprises. At the age of thirteen, becom- 
ing tired of study, he disposed of his satchel and books, with 
the intention of escaping to sea ; but the death of his father 
just at that time, frustrated his plans for the present, and 
threw him upon guardians, who, to repress the waywardness 
of his genius, confined him to a counting-room. From a con- 
finement so irksome, however, he contrived to escape not long 
after, and with ten shillings in his pocket, entered the train 
of a young nobleman traveling to France. 

On their arrival at Orleans, he received a discharge from 
further attendance upon Lord Bertie, who advanced him 
money to return to England. 

Smith had no wish, however, to return. With the money 
he had received he visited Paris, from which he proceeded to 
the low countries, where he enlisted into the service as a 
soldier. Having continued some time in this capacity, he was 
induced to accompany a gentleman to Scotland, who promised 
to recommend him to the notice of King James. Being dis- 
appointed, however, in this, he returned to England and vis- 
ited the place of his birth. Not finding the company there 
tiiuit suited his romantic turn, he erected a booth in some 
wood, and in the manner of a recluse, retired from society, 
devoting himself to the study of military history and tactics, 
diverting himself at intervals with his horse and lance. 

Recovering, about this time, a part of his father's estate, 



Eevolutionary Incidents. It 

■which had been in dispute, in 1596 he again commenced his 
travels, being then only seventeen years of age. His first 
.stage was Flanders, where, meeting with a Frenchman who 
pretended to be heir to a noble family, he was pi-evailed upon 
to accompany him to France. On their arrival at SL. Valory, 
in Picardy, by the connivance of the shipmaster, the French- 
man and attendants robbed him of his effects, and succeeded' 
in making their escape. 

Eager to pursue his travels, he endeavored to procure a 
place on board a man-of-war. In one of his rambles, search- 
ing for a ship that would receive him, he accidentally met 
one of the villains concerned in robbing him. Without ex- 
changing a word, they both instantly drew their swords. 
The contest was severe, but Smith succeeded in wounding and 
disarming his antagonist, and obliged him to confess his guilt. 
After this rencounter, having received pecuniary assistance 
from an acquaintance, the Earl of Ployer, he traveled along 
the French coast to Bayonne, and then crossed to Marseilles, 
visiting and observing everything in his course which had 
reference to naval or military architecture. 

At Marseilles he embarked for Italy in company with a 
number of pilgrims. But here, also, new troubles awaited 
him. During the voyage, a tempest arising, the ship was 
forced into Toulon, after leaving which contrary winds so 
impeded their progress that, in a fit of rage, the pilgrims 
imputing their ill fortune to the presence of a heretic, threw 
him into the sea. 

Being a good swimmer, he was enabled to reach the island 
of St. Mary, off* Nice, at no great distance, where he was 
taken on board a ship, in which, altering his course, he sailed 
to Alexandria in Egypt, and thence coasted the Levant. 
Having spent some time in this region, he sailed on his re- 
turn, and on leaving the ship, received about two thousand 
dollars, as his portion of a rich prize, which they had taken 
during the voyage. 

Smith landed at Antibes. He now traveled through Italy, 
crossed the Adriatic, and passed into Styria, to the seat of 
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria. The Emperor being at 
that time at war with the Turks, he entered his army as a 
volunteer. 

By means of his valor and ingenuity, aided by his military 



12 Historical and 

knowledge and experience, lie soon distinguislied himself^ 
and was advanced to the command of a company, consisting 
of two hundred and fifty horsemen, in the regiment of Count 
Meldrick, a nohleman of Transylvania. 

The regiment in which he served was engaged in several 
hazardous enterprises, in which Smith exhibited a bravery 
admired by all the army, and when Meldrick left the Imperial 
service for that of his native prince. Smith followed. 

At the siege of Regal he was destined to new adventures. . 
The Ottomans deriding the slow advance of the Transylva- 
nia army, the Lord Turbisha dispatched a messenger with 
a challenge, that for the diversion of the ladies of the place, 
he would fight any captain of the Christian troops. 

The honor of accepting this challenge was determined by 
lot, and fell on Smith. At the time appointed, the two- 
champions appeared in the field on horseback, and in the 
presence of the armies, and of the ladies of the insulting 
Ottoman, rushed impetuously to the attack. A short but 
desperate conflict ensued, at the end of which Smith was seen 
bearing the head of the lifeless Turbisha in triumph to his 
general. 

The fall of the chief filled his friend Crualgo with indig- 
nation, and roused him to avenge his death. Smith accord- 
ingly soon after received a challenge from him, which he did 
not hesitate to accept, and the two exasperated combatants, 
upon their chargers, fell with desperate fury upon each other. 
Victory again followed the falchion of Smith, who sent the 
Turk headlong to the ground. 

It was now the turn of Smith to make the advance. He 
dispatched a messenger therefore to the Turkish ladies, that 
jf they were desirous of more diversion of a similar kind, they 
should be welcome to his head, in case their third champion 
could take it. 

Bonamalgro tendered his services, and haughtily accepted 
the Christian's challenge. When the day arrived the spec- 
tators assembled, and the combatants entered the field. It 
was an hour of deep anxiety to all; as the horsemen ap- 
proached a deathlike silence pervaded the multitude. A blow 
from the saber of the Turk brought Smith to the ground, and 
for a moment it seemed as if the deed of death was done. 
Smith, however, was only stunned. He rose like a lion^ 



Eevolutionaby Incidents. 13 

when he shakes the dew from his mane for the fight, and 
-vaulting into the saddle, made his falchion " shed fast atone- 
'ment for its first delay." It is hardly necessary to add that 
the head of Bonamalgro was added to the number. 

Smith was received with transports of joy by the prince 
of Transylvania, who, after the capture of the place, pre- 
:Bented him with his picture set in gold, granted him a pen- 
sion of three hundred ducats a year, and conferred on him a 
<;oat of arms, bearing three Turks' heads in a shield. 

In a subsequent battle between the Transylvanian army 
and a body of Turks and Tartars, the former was defeated, 
with a loss of many killed and wounded. Among the 
wounded was the gallant Smith. His dress bespoke his con- 
sequence, and he was treated kindly. On his recovery from 
Jbis wounds, he was sold to the Bashaw Bogul, who sent him 
as a present to his mistress at Constantinople, assuring her 
that he was a Bohemian nobleman whom he had conquered, 
and whom he now presented to her as her slave. 

The present proved more acceptable to the lady than her 
lord intended. As she understood Italian, in that language 
Smith informed her of his country and quality, and by his 
singular address and engaging manners, won the affection 
of her heart. 

Designing to secure him to herself, but fearing lest some 
misfortune should befall him, she sent him to her brother, a 
Bashaw, on the borders of the sea of Asoph, with a direction 
that he should be initiated into the manners and language, 
as well as the religion of the Tartars. From the terms of 
her letter, her brother suspected her design, and resolved to 
disappoint her. Immediately after Smith's arrival, there- 
fore, he ordered him to be stripped, his head and beard to be 
shaven, and with an iron collar about his neck, and a dress 
of hair-cloth, he was driven forth to labor among some 
Christian slaves. * 

The circumstances of Smith were peculiarly afflicting. He 
could indulge no hope, except from the attachment of his 
mistress, but as her distance was great, it was improbable 
that she would soon become acquainted with the story of his 
misfortunes. 

In the midst of his distress, an opportunity to escape pre- 
-fiented itself, but under circumstances, which, to a person of 
2 



14 Historical and 

a less adventurous spirit, would have served only to highten; 
his distress. His employment was thrashing, at the distance- 
of a league from the residence of the Bashaw, who daily vis- 
ited him, but treated him with rigorous severity, and in a fit 
of anger, even abused him with blows. This last, was treat- 
ment to which the independent spirit of Smith could not 
submit. Watching a favorable opportunity, on an occasion of 
the tyrant's visit, and when his attendants were absent, he lev- 
eled his thrashing instrument at him and laid him in the dust. 

He then hastily filled a bag with grain, and mounted the 
Bashaw's horse, put himself upon fortune. Directing his- 
course toward a desert, he entered its recesses, and continuing- 
to conceal himself in its obscurities for several days, at length 
made his escape. In sixteen days he arrived at Exapolis, on. 
the river Don, where meeting with the Kussian garrison, the 
commander treated him kindly, and gave him letters of 
recommendation to other commanders in that region. 

He now traveled through a part of Eussia and Poland, and 
at length reached his friends in Transylvania. At Leipsic 
he enjoyed the pleasure of meeting his Colonel, Count Mel- 
drick, and Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, who presented 
him with fifteen hundred ducats. His fortune being thus in 
a measure repaired, he traveled through Grermany, France, 
and Spain, and having visited the kingdom of Morocco, re- 
turned once more to England. 

Such is a rapid view of the life of this interesting adven- 
turer, down to liis arrival in his native land. At this time, 
the settlement of America was occupying the attention of 
many distinguished men in England. The life of Smith, 
united to his fondness for enterprises of danger and difficul- 
ty, had prepared him to embark with zeal, in a project so 
novel and sublime as that of exploring the wilds of a newly 
discovered continent. 

He was soon attached to the expedition, about to sail under 
Newport, and was appointed one of the magistrates of the 
colony sent over at that time. Before the arrival of the 
colony, his colleagues in office becoming jealous of his influ- 
ence, arrested him on the absurd charge that he designed to 
murder the council, usurp the government, and make him- 
self king of Virginia. He was, therefore, rigorously confined, 
during the remainder of the voyage. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 16 

On their arrival in the country he was liberated, but coold 
not obtain a trial, although in the tone of conscious integrity, 
he repeatedly demanded it. The infant colony was soon in- 
volved in perplexity and danger. Notwithstanding Smith 
had been calumniated, and his honor deeply wounded, his 
was not the spirit to remain idle when his services were 
needed. Nobly disdaining revenge, he oflfered his assistance, 
and by his talents, experience, and indefatigable zeal, fur- 
nished important aid to the infant colony. 

Continuing to assert his innocence, and to demand a trial, 
the time at length arrived when his enemies could postpone 
it no longer. After a fair hearing of the case, he was hon- 
orably acquitted of the charges alleged against him, and soon 
after took his seat in the council. 

The affairs of the colony becoming more settled, the active 
spirit of Smith prompted him to explore the neighboring 
country. In an attempt to ascertain the source of Chicka- 
homing river, he ascended in a barge as far as the stream 
was uninterrupted. Designing to proceed still further, he 
left the barge in the keeping of the crew, with strict injunc- 
tions on no account to leave her, and with two Englishmen 
and two Indians left the party. But no sooner was he out 
of view, than the crew, impatient of restraint, repaired on 
board the barge, and proceeding some distance down the 
stream, landed at a place where a body of Indians lay in am- 
bush, by whom they were seized. 

By means of the crew, the route of Smith was ascertained, 
and a party of Indians were immediately dispatched to take 
him. On coming up with him, they fired, killed the Eng- 
lishmen, and wounded himself. With great presence of mind, 
he now tied his Indian guide to his left arm, as a shield from 
the enemies' arrow, while with his musket he dispatched 
three of the most forward of the assailants. 

In this manner he continued to retreat toward his canoe, 
while the Indians, struck with admiration of his bravery; 
followed with respectful caution. Unfortunately, coming to 
a sunken spot filled with mire, while engrossed with eyeing 
his pursuers, he sunk so deep, as to be unable to extricate 
himself, and was forced to surrender. 

Fruitful in expedients to avert immediate death, he pre- 
sented an ivory compass to the chief, whose attention was 



18 Historical and 

an-ested by the vibrations of the needle. Taking advantage 
of the impression which he had thus made, partly by signs, 
and partly by language, he excited their wonder still more 
by telling them of its singular powers. 

Their wonder, however, seemed soon to abate, and their 
attention returned to their prisoner. He was now bound 
and tied to a tree, and the savages were preparing to direct 
their arrows at his breast. At this instant the chief holding 
up the compass, they laid down their arms, and led him in 
triumph to Powhattan, their king. 

Powhattan and his council doomed him to death, as a man 
whose courage and genius were peculiarly dangerous to the 
Indians. Preparations were accordingly made, and when 
the time arrived. Smith was led out to execution. His head 
was laid upon a stone, and a club presented to Powhattan, 
who, himself claimed the honor of becoming the executioner. 
The savages in silence were circling round, and the giant 
arm of Powhattan had already raised the club to strike the 
fatal blow, when, to his astonishment, the young and beau- 
tiful Pocahontas, his daughter, with a shriek of terror, 
rushed from the throng, and threw herself upon the body 
of Smith. At the same time she cast an imploring look 
toward her furious but astonished father, and in all the 
eloquence of mute, but impassioned sorrow, besought his life. 

The remainder of the scene was honorable to Powhattan. 
The club of the chief was still uplifted, but a father's pity 
had touched his heart, and the eye that had first kindled 
with wrath, was now fast losing its fiercenesss. He looked 
round as if to collect his fortitude, or perhaps, to find an ex- 
cuse for his weakness, in the pity of the attendants. A 
similar sympathy had melted the savage throng, and seemed 
to join in the petition, which the weeping Pocahontas felt, 
but durst not utter: "My father! let the prisoner live." 
Powhattan raised his daughter, and the captive, scarcely yet 
assured of safety, from the earth. 

Shortly after, Powhattan dismissed Captain Smith with 
assurances of friendship, and the next morning, accompanied 
with a guard of twelve men, he arrived safely at James- 
town, after a captivity of seven weeks.^' 

* Burk's Virginia. 



CHAPTER II. 

Historical depreciation of Sam's Southern children — Abusive epithets cur. 
rent — Contrast with the first Northern Settlements — Who, apparently, 
under the ban of Providence ? — Who were the Discoverers and Explorers 
of the New World? 

So much for the peerless chevalier — the Father of Vir- 
ginia, and Explorer of the North,* — illustrious John Smith ! 
Nor is this all of his career. It had been chiefly through 
his influence, that James I was induced to grant the " first 
colonial charter " under which the English were planted in 
America ; although the great majority of Sam's children 
have never to this day, heard that there was any other place 
settled in " the beginning," but Plymouth, or any code of 
laws instituted than the precious "Botly" of Eights, with its 
'' Blue " Lights, or Laws, to which we have referred ; jvt 
not only is it true, that to John Smith and Virginia we ovrc 
the "first colonial charter" in 1606, but to John Smith and 
Virginia do we owe, in June, 1619, the " first colonial assem- 
bly " that ever met in America, and which was convened at 
Jamestown. 

While John Carver, Cotton Mather, and the " Saintly 
Winthrop," are names canonized throughout the laud as the 
select forerunners of Freedom — so many "Baptists" pro- 
claiming in the wilderness the " good news" of the approach- 
ing regeneration of humanity — John Smith remains plain 
"John Smith," who was "saved by Pocahontas." 

" In 1614, Captain John Smith sailed from England, with two ships, to 
America. He ranged the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod. On his return 
to England, he presented a map of the country to Prince Charles, who 
named it New England. Thus was the first survey of her own coast, and 
which resulted in giving her a name, made by the founder of these South 
ern institutions now se villified by New England. 

2^ 17 



18 Historical and 

Sam says fidcUe-faddle ! tlie " brazen tongue " wagged bj 
these clerkly fellows is tiresome ; they have kept up one 
eternal too-oo ! too-oo ! too-oot ! in defense of the saintly 
villains and villainies of their early times when nobody was 
attacking them. For who troubled themselves about it, 
since vices and cruelties were, as everybody knew, to be ex- 
pected in the settlement of all new countries ? But not 
content with taking their chances in the impartial recogni- 
tion of mankind, and confining themselves to the plain nar- 
rative of facts, they have exhibited a systematic effort to 
forestall what might be expected to become the natural sen- 
timent — a conscious, nervous special pleading in advance, has 
betrayed the apprehension of justifiable attack. The pur- 
pose to "make a character" where they could lay claim to 
none. Demanding of the credulity of mankind for the Pu- 
ritan, the united attributes of apostle, saint, lawgiver, states- 
man, warrior, and psalmodist, they dismiss the renowned and 
noble founder of Virginia with the contemptuous implication 
of petty adventure — his illustrious name coupled with a silly 
story of rescue by a forlorn Indian maiden, (who was in fact, a 
little child) — as though this "lovely Indian princess" were 
indeed the heroic actor in the only scene in his career worth 
recording, while the poor John Smith was merely a passive 
instrument. 

Nor is this all, saith Sam. While, although with preten- 
tious humility, they have very properly, never emulated the 
"gallant spirit" of the cavaliers, yet, as a saving clause for 
their self-righteousness, they have stigmatized them as " dis- 
solute gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, 
broken tradesmen, gentlemen impoverished in spirit and for- 
tune, rakes and libertines ; men more fitted to corrupt than 
to found a commonwealth," * winding up this delectable cata- 
logue with the pious exclamation: "It was not the will of 
God that the new State should be formed of these materials — 
that such men were to be the fathers of a progeny born on 
the American soil, who were one day to assert American 
liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor."f 

Then as cumulative evidence that the hand of Providence 
had clearly interposed to prevent such .prayerless " vaga- 

*^' Bancroft, page 138, 1st. vol. jldem, page 138. 



Eevolution-ary Incidents, 19 

bonds" from becoming fathers of a State, they say in the 
next breath: "John Smith, being wounded and compelled to 
return to Europe, at his departure, he had left more than 
four hundred and ninety persons in the colony ; in six months, 
indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to sixty, and 
these were so feeble and dejected, that if relief had been 
delayed but ten days longer, they must have utterly per- 
ished." * 

Away with such driveling cant, says Sam. If suffering 
from famine and other necessary and usually attendant dan- 
gers of settlement in a new country, be any evidence that 
God has willed that a set of " vagabonds " should not be per- 
mitted to perpetuate their spawn upon the face of a new 
country, destined to be the home of a free people, what be- 
comes of your own story of the sufferings of the " Pilgrim 
Fathers?" "After some days they began to build — a diffi- 
cult task for men of whom one-half were wasting away with 
consumptions and lung fevers." f 

This only a few days after landing, too, quoth Sam ; 
pretty recreations these ascetic self-denying Puritans must 
have indulged in on board that same immaculate May- 
Flower ! Ask any of my physicians out of New England 
what habits are most likely to engender consumption, under 
such circumstances, thunders he in wrath, ask them too if 
men usually " waste away with consumptions and lung 
fevers " in three or four days ! — and you will be apt to find 
why it is that these fellows did not emulate the " gallant 
spirit " of the cavaliers. 

But this is not all, continues the inexorable Sam, whose 
pluck is up at hearing his southern children thus gratuitously 
made the sole plenary examples of the results of vice, in- 
dolence and crime. 

Was the hand of Providence in it for the extermination 
of the embryo of a race of hypocritical blue-law enactors, 
persecuting witch-burners and savage kidnappers, when "a 
shelter not less than comfort, had been wanting, the living 
being scarcely able to bury the dead, the well not sufficient 
to take care of the sick? At the season of distress, there 
were but seven able to render assistance. The benevolent 

" Bancroft, page 140, vol. 1. f Idem, page 313, vol. 1. 



29 Historical and 

Carver had been appointed Governor ; at liis first landing 
he had lost a son ; soon after the departure of the May- 
Flower for England his health sunk under a sudden attack, 
and his wife, broken-hearted, followed him in death. 
William Bradford, the historian of the colony, was soon 
chosen his successor. The record of misery was kept by the 
graves of the governor and half his company." Was this 
the hand of Providence? But let us hear more. "But if 
sickness ceased to prevail, the hardships of privation and want 
remained to be encountered. In the autumn an arrival of 
new emigrants, who came unprovided with food, compelled the 
whole colony, for six months in succession, to subsist on half 
allowance only." " I have seen men," says Winslow, " stag- 
ger by reason of faintness for want of food." They were 
once saved from famishing by the benevolence of fishermen 
off the coast. Sometimes they suffered from oppressive ex- 
action on the part of ships that sold them provisions at the 
most exorbitant prices. Nor did their miseries soon termi- 
nate. Even in the third year of the settlement the victuals 
were so entirely spent, Ifhat " they knew not at night where 
to have a bit in the morning." Tradition declares that, "at 
one time, the colonists were reduced to a pint of corn, which 
being parched and distributed, gave to each individual only 
five kernels ; but rumor falls short of reality ; for three or 
four months together they had no corn whatever. When a 
few of their old friends arrived to join them, a lobster or a 
piece of fish, without bread or anything else but a cup of fair 
spring water, was the best dish which the hospitality of the 
whole colony could offer. Neat cattle were not introduced 
till the fourth year of the settlement. Yet during all this 
season of self-denial and suffering, the cheerful confidence 
of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Providence remained un- 
shaken." 

Ho! ho! says Sam, with a laugh that makes the very 
codfish stand upon their tails in wonder. " The living scarce 
able to bury the dead ! the well not able to take care of the 
sick !" but seven were " able to render assistance." " Colonists 
reduced to five grains of corn apiece !" this seems a bad busi- 
ness ! What was the hand of Providence — of which they 
are so fond of speaking familiarly — doing with these saints 
about these times ? Not exterminating them as unfit to 



Revolutionary Incidents. 21 

become the "progenitors of freemen !" oh, no ! " Chastening 
us ; but as for those hlackguard cavaliers down yonder at 
Jamestown, he is exterminating them !" Hoo ! ho ! yet you 
were the nearest exterminated of the two ! But as " the 
cheerful confidence of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Pro- 
vidence remained unshaken," we must take it for granted 
that the Providence of the Pilgrims and the Providence of 
the cavaliers were two different powers in the " State " — In 
no event does this seem more apparent than in the fact that 
this doleful sixty, — the remnant of the doomed four hun- 
dred and ninety — even after having been joined by a 
destitute reinforcement, — which had been wrecked on the 
way to join them with supplies, thus rendering their despera- 
tion even more forlorn — having embarked with the ma J hope 
of returning across the sea in ships built of cedar logs, with- 
out provisions, met at the mouth of the river the long boat 
of Lord Delaware, who had just arrived on the coast with 
new emigrants and abundant supplies. 

Now, if Providence be the benign and solemn source of a 
great and unexpected good to mankind for wise purposes, 
beyond its ken, which is the aspect of that majestic power, 
in which wise and good men love best to regard its mysterious 
doings, then does Sam look upon this as one of those events 
which might justly be styled providential ! That thus these 
"dissolute" and "vagabond" sons of Sam did so regard it, let 
this same narrator from whom we have been quoting show. 
In the intellectual zeal of natural justice, he sometimes 
manages to forget his cue of Puritan, and burst forth into 
an involuntary apotheosis of truth without regard to locality. 

It was on the tentli day of June that the restoration of 
the colony was solemnly begun by supplications to God. A 
deep sense of the infinite mercies of his providence overawed 
the colonists who had been spared by famine, the emigrants 
who had been shipwrecked and yet preserved, and the new 
comers who found wretchedness and want when they had ex- 
pected the contentment of abundance. The firmness of their 
resolution repelled despair. 

" It is," said they, " the arm of the Lord of Hosts who 
would have his people pass the Red Ssa and the wilderness, 
and then possess the land of Canaan." Dangers avoided 
inspire trust in providence. " Doubt not," said the emi- 



22 Historical and 

grants to the people of England, " ' God will raise one State 
and build his church in this excellent clime.' After solemn 
exercises of religion, Lord Delaware caused his commission 
to he read ; a consultation was immediately held on the good 
of the colony, and its government was organized with mild- 
ness hut decision. The evils of faction were healed hy the 
unity of the administration and the dignity and virtues of 
the governor, and the colonists, excited hy mutual emulation, 
performed their tasks with alacrity. At the beginning of 
the day they assembled in the little church, which was kept 
neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country ; next 
they returned to their houses to receive their allowance of 
food. The settled hours of labor were from six in the morn- 
ing till ten, and from two in the afternoon till four. The 
house was warm and secure, covered above with strong boards, 
and matted on the inside after the "fashion of the" Indian 
wigwams. Security and aflluence were returning." 

Sam thinks that this can hardly be said to describe a 
doomed and God-forsaken crew of "profligate vagabonds,'' 
nor can he conceive from whence on the face of the story the 
" licentiousness " so grievously complained of can proceed, 
unless it be in the contrast which the " little church kept 
neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country " oftered 
to the sulky smoke-dens in which the Pilgrims oftered up 
their morose and vindictive oblations to the God of Light 
and Peace. 

" Security and affluence were returning," yet Sam insists 
that the unfortunate " sixty " dedicated by Providence to 
annihilation were still left to multiply and replenish beneath 
the protecting arm of the " Lord of Hosts " whom they so 
devoutly adored for his mercies, and that, too, in spite of 
the " particular Providence " of their more unfortunate 
northern brothers. 

But, forsooth, what seems to have constituted the knights 
and gentlemen, the peers and followers of Columbus, the 
Cabots, Cortes, De Soto, Ealeigh, and John Smith — "dissolute 
vagabonds " and " mere adventurers ?" " They came to 
search for gold," snuflie my puritanical boobies ; says Sam, 
and what of it ? To what other instincts than the love of 
gold and glory do we owe the commerce and expanding 
civilization of the old world, as well as the discovery, con- 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 23 

quests, and civilization of the New ? America was then the 
California of Europe ; your disinterested sons have only 
•crowded into California "for liberty to worship God" of 
course — or " to found an empire," no doubt. 

When your fractious, meddlesome and noisy progenitors, 
were driven out of England for England's good, and could 
not stay even in fat, frouzy and most patient Holland, when 
the fatigued toleration of Europe would no longer permit you 
a spot whereon to rest the soles of your feet ; then, of course, 
as "America was the region of romance, where the heated 
imagination could indulge in the boldest delusions, where the 
simple natives wore the most precious ornaments, and by the 
side of the clear runs of water the sands sparkled with 
gold ;"* thither, your eyes, in common with those of all the 
world, were turned, and the spirit moved you to " found an 
empire " based upon "the right to worship God." 

Not by any manner of means that you were moved thereto 
by any lust for gold or base carnal desire whatever ! — al- 
though, at that time, gold was being sought with equal 
eagerness along the whole Atlantic border — from the voyagers 
in search of a northwest passage among the arctic ice and 
snow, who took home the holds of their vessels filled with 
what they thought to be golden earth — to the ungodly ad- 
venturers at Jamestown in the South ! 

But "who would have expected to find gold on the bleak 
rocks of Plymouth ?" and beside, their historian says, " They 
knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on these 
things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest 
country, and quieted their spirits."| 

Very well — it would seem then that they had indeed no 
other country to lift their eyes to, for the same historian 
says, " they had no homes to go to — so that at last the 
magistrates were glad to be rid of them on any terms." It 
"would not do to call these people " vagabonds," of course, 
because, with a sanctimonious upturning of the eyes they 
had said " they looked not much on these things !" But as 
with an impious familiarity which has always characterized 
their modes of speech, they " found God going along with 
them," and turned their eyes upon North Virginia, applying 
to the Virginia Company for a patent. 

* Bancroft. f Bradford. 



24 Historical and 

Now Virginia was understood to be the safest place around 
wliich the aroma of hidden wealth in treasure clung, and 
thither they set out to go in the Speedwell and the Mayflower, 
They were driven off their course by storms, and landed at 
Plymouth " on compulsion ! " 

But Sam would remind them that " the beauty and im- 
measurable wealth of Guiana hatl been painted in dazzling 
colors by the brilliant eloquence of Kaleigh ; but the terrors 
of the tropical climate, the wavering pretensions of England 
to the soil, and the proximity of bigoted Catholics led them 
rather to look toward the most northern parts of Virginia." * 

We can very well comprehend now, quoth Sam, how, in 
their humility, they have never emulated the " gallant 
spirit" of the "vagabond" cavaliers! 

How many new worlds would have been discovered? How 
many Perus and Mexicos conquered? How many Missis- 
sippis found and Virginias built up, had these stigmatized 
cavaliers been turned aside by the " terrors " of tropical 
rlimates, wavering pretensions of kings, or proximity of ad- 
verse creeds? 

• Bancroft. 



CHAPTER III. 

Prosperity of tt* Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Captain Smith- 
Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great Massacre of the Settlers. 

But enough of tliis. It would seem that under the tute- 
lary guardianship of Smith, the colonies were now prospering 
greatly. The first cotton grown in the United States had 
now been planted under his auspices (1621); and its "plen- 
tiful coming up" had been a subject of interest in America 
and England. "Yes," says Sam, "these libertine vagabonds 
seem likely to prove themselves first in everything." 

The relations with the natives had been, as yet, compara 
tively pleasant. There had been quarrels, but no wars. 
From the first landing of colonists in Virginia, the power of 
the natives was despised. Their strongest weapons were such 
arrows as they could shape without the use of iron — such 
hatchets as could be made from stone, and an English mas- 
tiff seemed to them a terrible adversary. 

Within sixty miles of Jamestown, it is computed, there 
were no more than five thousand souls, or about fifteen hundred 
warriors. The natives, naked and feeble compared with the 
Europeans, were nowhere concentrated in considerable vil- 
lages, but dwelt dispersed in hamlets, with from forty to sixty 
in each company. Few places had more than two hundred, 
and many had less. It was also unusual for any large por- 
tion of the tribes to assemble together. 

Smith once met a party that seemed to amount to seven 
hundred, and so complete was the superiority conferred by 
the use of fire-arms, that with fifteen men he was able tc 
withstand them all. No uniform care had been taken to con 
ciliate their good-will, although their condition had been 
improved by some of the arts of civilized life. A house 
3 26 



26 Historical and 

having been built for Opeehancanough, after tlie English 
fashion, he took such delight in the lock and key that he 
would lock and unlock the door a hundred times a day, and 
thought the device incomparable. 

When Wyatt arrived, the natives expressed fear lest his 
intentions should be hostile. He assured them of his wish to 
preserve inviolable peace, and the emigrants had no use for 
tire-arms except against a deer or fowl. The penalty of death 
for teaching an Indian to use a musket was forgotten ; and 
they were now employed as fowlers and huntsmen. The 
plantations of the English were widely extended in unsus- 
pecting confidence wherever rich land invited to the culture 
of tobacco ; nor were solitary places avoided, since there would 
be less competition for the ownership of the soil. 

Powhattan, the father of Pocahontas, remained, after the 
marriage of his daughter, the firm friend of the English. 
He died in 1618, and his younger brother was now the sole 
heir to his influence. Should the native occupants of the soil 
consent to be driven from their ancient patrimony ? Should 
their feebleness submit to contempt, injury, and the loss of 
their lands? The desire of self-preservation, the necessity 
of self-defense seemed to demand an active resistance. To 
preserve their dwellings, the English must be exterminated. 
In open battle the Indians would be powerless. 

Conscious of their weakness, they could not hope to accom- 
plish their end, except by a preconcerted sui'prise. The crime 
was one of savage ferocity. They were timorous and quick 
of apprehension, and consequently treacherous. The attack 
was concocted with impenetrable secrecy. To the very last 
hour the Indians preserved the language of friendship; they 
borrowed the boats of the English to attend their own as- 
semblies; on the very morning of the massacre they were 
in the houses and at the tables of those whose death they 
were plotting. " Sooner," said they, "shall the sky fall than 
peace be violated on our part." 

At length, on the 2 2d of March, at one and at the same 
instant of time, the Indians fell upon an unsuspecting popu- 
lation, which was scattered through distant villages extending 
one hundred and forty miles on both sides of the river. The 
onset was so sudden that the blow was not discerned until it 
fell. None were spared — children and women as well as 



Revolutionary Incidents. 27 

men ; missionaries, wlio had cherished the natives with un- 
tiring gentleness ; the liberal benefactors from whom they 
had received daily kindnesses ; all were murdered with indis- 
criminate barbarity and every aggravation of cruelty. The 
savages fell upon the dead bodies, as if it had been possible 
to commit on them fresh murder. 

In one hour three hundred and forty-seven persons were 
cut off, yet the carnage was not universal, and Virginia was 
saved from so disastrous a grave. The night before the 
execution of the conspiracy, it was revealed by a converted 
Indian to an Englishman whom he wished to rescue. James- 
town and the nearest settlements were well prepared against 
an attack, and the savages, as timid as they were ferocious, 
fled with precipitation from the apparent wakeful resistance. 
Tiius the larger part of the colony was saved. 

A year after the massacre, there still remained two thou- 
sand five hundred men. The total number of the emigrants 
had exceeded four thousand.-'' 

Thus it seems that these " dissolute adventurers" had, up 
to this time, cultivated the most amicable relations with their 
savage neighbors, and that it was not until this horrible 
massacre of the trusting colonists, that " plans of industry 
were entirely succeeded by schemes of i-evenge," and a war 
of extermination ensued. These conditions, Sam thinks, as 
something unlike those which preceded the ruthless slaughter 
of the miserable and defenseless Pequods by his sanctimoni- 
ous sons! Nor does Sam hear anything of "Bum" as a 
contracting party in the peace which was made with Pow- 
hattau. 

^' This account we epitomize from Bancroft. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Origin of "First Families" in Virginia — Auction of wives to the Vir- 
ginians — Sam's idea of Aristocracy — Virginians obtain the right of trial 
by Jury — of Representative Government also — Religious toleration first 
granted them, repealed. 

But Sam turns now suddenly toward the Soutli, and a hu- 
morous twinkle broadens on his wide countenance, as he re- 
gards for a moment the lordly airs of " some of our First 
Families" — then planting his huge finger upon the page of 
History which follows — he bursts into a great guffaw. 

" * The people of Virginia had not been settled in their 
minds,' and, as before the recent changes, they had gone 
there with the design of ultimately returning to England, it 
was necessary to multiply attachments to the soil. Few 
women had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic ; but now, the 
promise of prosperity, induced ninety agreeable persons, 
young and incorrupt, to listen to the wishes of the company, 
and the benevolent advice of Sandys, and to embark for the 
colony, where they were assured of a welcome. They were 
transported at the expense of the corporation, and were mar- 
ried to the tenants of the company, or to men who were able 
to support them, and who willingly defrayed the cost of their 
passage, which was rigorously demanded. The adventure, 
which had been in part a mercantile speculation, succeeded 
so well, that it was designed to send, the next year, another 
consignment of one hundred ; but before these could be col- 
lected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could 
be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, 
sixty were actually dispatched — maids of virtuous education, 
young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose 
from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds 
28 



Revolutionary Incidents. 29 

of tobacco, or even more ; so that all the original charges 
might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honor, 
and took precedence of any other ; and the company in con^ 
ferring employments, gave preference to the married men. 
Domestic ties were formed; virtuous sentiments and habits 
of thrift ensued; the tide of emigration swelled; within 
three years, fifty patents for land were granted, and three 
thousand, five hundred persons found their way to Virginia, 
which was a refuge even for ' Puritans.' " 

" Hoo, hoo, hoo!" — "first families " indeed ! when your 
great, great grandmothers, were bought off* of transport ships 
for a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds of 
tobacf.o each. " Here is the aristocratic for you V he shouts 
hoarsely, clutching with outstretched arm the tufted crest 
of an Alleghany summit, which he rocks and heaves as if to 
tear it by its roots from out his path, and thereby shaking 
the chain along its whole length into a shiver, " The power 
and will to do — to move — to overcome — this is my aris- 
tocracy." 

The indignation of Sam was only transient, for as he saw 
the startled mountains cradled back to sleep again in short- 
ened vibrations, he smiled complacently, and said, with a 
slow speech and humorous twinkle : '* Why, that youngster 
of mine, California, will, at this rate, soon be pluming him- 
self upon a special aristocratic caste, sprung from the loins 
of those innocent maidens captivated and bewitched into his 
embraces by that enterprising admirer of the multiplication 
and replenishing of the earth system — Mrs. Farnham ! " But 
then, he adds thoughtfully, with his foot in a notch, and leaning 
his elbow upon the now quiet summit of the mountains — as 
he looks out on the West — " this young fellow is rather 
knowing of his age ; he was born with a pickaxe in his hand; 
and understands that honor is alone to be won by labor — 
he '11 do." 

But the mood of Sam has suddenly changed ; and so ye 
slavish " Howlers of the East," it has never got into your 
" round heads," that after the formal concession of " legisla- 
tive liberties," the next charter of rights obtained for the 
" liberty of which ye cant so much, was that of the right of 
trial by jury of peers" in this profligate and ungodly 
colony of Virginia ! and furthermore, that this right was 
3* 



30 Historical and 

obtained in defiance of the interference of King James, by the 
London Company, who elected as Treasurer, the Earl of 
Southampton, the early friend of Shakspeare ! 

Under this organization, the Treasurer was in reality the 
most important officer. Indeed nothing could move without 
his co-operation, and " it is natural," says Sam, " that the early 
friend of Shakespeare — who was so far before the old world 
in reach of freedom of thought — should have been the earli- 
est promoter of the right of trial by jury in the New World." 

Sam disdains to call himself the "child of Shakespeare," or 
anybody else, because he is alone the child of the elements, 
and his children the sons of Sam ; yet it rather pleases the 
stalwart gentleman that his children down South obtained the 
"right of trial by jury" first through an early friend of 
Shakespeare, and perpetuated it, together with the novelty 
of "legislative liberties" to all the other colonies. 

The system of representative government and trial by jury 
was thus (1621) established in the new hemisphere as an 
acknowledged right. The colonists ceasing 'to depend as 
servants on a commercial company, now became enfranchised 
citizens. Henceforward the supreme power was held to re- 
side in the hands of the colonial parliament and of the King, 
as Kino' of Virginia. The ordinance was the basis on which 
Virginia erected the superstructure of its liberties. Its in- 
fluences were wide and enduring, and can be traced through 
all following years of the history of the colony. It consti- 
tuted the plantation in its infancy a nursery of freemen, and 
succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions which 
were as old as the first period of the prosperity of their 
fathers. 

The privileges which were now conceded could never be 
wrested from the Virginians ; and as new colonies arose at 
the South, their proprietaries could hope to win emigrants only 
by bestowing franchises as large as those enjoyed by their 
elder rival. The London company merits the fame of having 
acted as the successful friend of liberty in America. It may 
be doubted whether any public act during the reign of King 
James was of more permanent or pervading influence ; and 
it reflects glory on the Earl of Southampton, Sir Edwin 
Sandys, and the patriot party of England, who, unable to 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 31 

establish guarantees of a liberal administration at borne, were 
careful to connect popular freedom so intimately with the life, 
pros}3erity and state of society of Virginia, that tbey never 
could bo separated. 

Thus it would appear, says Sam, that my dissolute vaga- 
bonds of Virginia managed to thrive in one way and another 
amazingly. Not only did they contrive to obtain first from 
the Crown those concessions which constitute in themselves 
the magna charta of American freedom, and were afterward 
emulated and imitated in the constitutions of other colonies, 
but they likewise set the noble example of religious tolera- 
tion, and while their bigoted and canting brothers of Ply- 
mouth were banishing a Roger Williams and the Anabap- 
tists, hanging the inofiensive Quakers, burning, pressing, and 
drawing and quartering miserable old women, under the 
name of witches ; these profligate colonists, although firm 
believers in the union of church and state, were inviting these 
very Puritans to come among them and settle in peace. 

The condition of contending parties in England had now 
given to Virginia an opportunity of legislation independent 
of European control ; and the voluntary act of the assembly 
restraining religious liberty, adopted from hostility to polit- 
ical innovation, rather than a spirit of fanaticism, or respect 
to instructions, proves conclusively the attachment of the 
representatives of Virginia to the Episcopal church and the 
cause of royalty. Yet there had been Puritans in the colony 
almost from the beginning ; even the Brownists were freely 
offered a serene asylum. " Here," said the tolerant Whita- 
ker, " neither surplice nor subscription is spoken of," and sev- 
eral Puritan clergy emigrated to Virginia. They were so 
contented with their reception, that large numbers were pre- 
paring to follow, and were restrained only by the forethought 
of English intolerance. We have seen that the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth were invited to remove within the jurisdiction of 
Virginia ; Puritan merchants planted themselves at James 
river without fear, and emigrants from Massachusetts had 
recently established themselves in the colony. The honor of 
Land had been vindicated by a judicial sentence, and south 
of the Potomac the decrees of the court of high commission 
were allowed to be valid, but I find no traces of persecution 
in the earliest history of Virginia. 



32 Historical and 

This is the self same historian who calls the early settlers 
of* Virginia by such terrible hard names and denounces them 
as under the ban of Providence, because of their unworthi- 
ness to become the perpetuators of a race of freemen. 
" Strange," says Sam, " that a people accursed of God should 
have been the very originators of the fundamental ideas of 
freedom." 

Although this gracious invitation had, by a special mission 
sent to Boston for the purpose, been extended in form to the 
ministers of Puritanism to come and settle in Virginia, yet 
the breaking out of the democratic revolution in England 
alarmed the loyalty of the colonists, who now dreaded the 
well-known meddlesome, prying, mischief-making proclivities 
of the malignant Calvinists which had procured their extir- 
pation from the old world, and the invitation was withdrawn 
and such non-conformists with Episcopacy were very properly 
banished from the colony. 

Sam says they did perfectly right in this, for from all the 
facts of their old world career, the Virginians had the very 
best reasons for expecting nothing but incendiary agitation 
at such a crisis, and were justly indisposed to warm a viper 
in their own bosoms. 

The historians of Puritanism are compelled to speak of 
this justifiable act of self-defense only in such modified terms 
as the following: "Virginia thus displayed, though with 
comparatively little bitterness, the intolerance which for cen- 
turies had almost universally prevailed throughout the 
Christian world." 



CHAPTER V. 

Repeal of Charter of London Company — The Bacon Rebellion — Death of 
Bacoa and character of same. 

But the great event of Virginia history was the repeal of 
the Charter of the London Company about this period, (June, 
1624,) and the colony now became dependent upon herself — 
her own legislative assembly and the king directly. They 
purchased a confirmation of all those franchises which the 
liberal prepossessions of the London Company had gradually 
conceded by the struggle for the surrender of the monopoly 
of tobacco to the spendthrift monarch Charles I. " The first 
recognition on the part of a Stuart of a representative assem- 
bly in America " was of that called by Charles to consider his 
offer of a contract for the whole crop of tobacco. 

The erring monarch, to obtain the monopoly, carelessly 
overlooked the dangers of this elective legislature. Fortu- 
nate recklessness ! though the firmness of the Virginia Assem- 
bly defeated him. 

Yet this auspicious event has its drawbacks, which proved 
sufficiently formidable, beyond a doubt. This first attach- 
ment of the crown was rapidly followed by other interferences 
with, and encroachments upon, the liberty of trade, until at 
last, in 1641, "England claimed that monopoly of colonial 
commerce which was ultimately enforced by the navigation 
act of Charles 11." 

Charles I, although he had pertinaciously expressed his 
" will and pleasure to have the sole pre-emption of all tobacco," 
had as yet failed of accomplishing his object. He, however, 
by a cunning indirection, finally succeeded in achieving what 
amounted to the same end. 

33 



34 Historical and 

No vessel laden with colonial commodities might sail from 
the harbors of Virginia for any ports but those of England, 
that the staple of those commodities might be made in the 
mother country ; and all trade with foreign vessels, except 
in case of necessity, was forbidden. This ordinance, which 
constituted the original of the oppressive " Navigation Act," 
was the cause of infinite and grievous troubles to the Vir- 
ginia colony. 

In 1676, while the Indian war v,as still going on, com- 
plaints were made in England against the colonies for violat- 
ing the acts of trade. These acts imposed oppressive customs 
upon certain commodities, if imported from any country 
beside England, or if transported from one colony to another. 
The acts were considered by the colonies as unjust, impolitic 
and cruel. For several years they paid little attention to 
them, and his majesty at length required that agents should 
b3 sent to England to answer in behalf of the colonies for 
these violations. 

By the acts of trade none of the colonies suffered more 
than Virginia and Maryland, their operation being greatly 
to lessen the profits on their tobacco trade, from which a great 
portion of their wealth was derived. In addition to these 
sufferings, the colony of Virginia, in violation of chartered 
rights, was divided and conveyed away in proprietary grants. 
Not only uncultivated woodlands were thus conveyed, but also 
plantations which had long been possessed, and improved 
according to law and charter. 

The Virginians complained, petitioned, remonstrated, but 
■'vithout efi:ect. Agents were sent to England to lay their 
grievances at the foot of the throne, but were unsuccessful. 
At length their oppression became insupportable, and the 
discontent of the people broke out into open insurrection. 

At the head of this insurrection was placed one Nathaniel 
Bacon, an Englishman, who, soon after his arrival had been 
appointed a member of the council. He was a young man 
of commanding person, and great energy and enterprise. 

The colony at this time was engaged in war with the Sus- 
quehanna Indians. Bacon dispatched a messenger to Gov- 
ernor Berkley, requesting a commission to go against the 
Indians. This commission the governor refused, and, at the 
same time, ordered Bacon to dismiss his men, and on penalty 



Revolutioxarv In-cidj^nts. 35 

of being declared a rebel, to appear before bimself and the 
council. Exasperated by such treatment, Bacon, without dis- 
banding the rest of his men, proceeded in a sloop with forty 
of them, to Jamestown. Here a quarrel ensued, and Berk- 
ley illegally suspended him from the council. Bacon departed 
in a rage with his sloop and men, but the governor pursued 
him, and adopted such measures that he was taken, and 
brought to Jamestown. 

Finding that he had dismissed Bacon from the council 
illegally, he now admitted him again, and treated him kindly. 
Soon after, Bacon renewed his importunity for a commission 
against the Indians. Being unable to effect his purpose, he 
left Jamestown privately, but soon again appeared with six 
hundred volunteers, and demanded of the assembly then sit- 
ting, the required commission. Being overawed, the assem- 
bly advised the governor to grant it. But soon after Bacon 
had departed, the governor, by the same advice, issued a 
proclamation, denouncing. him as a rebel. 

Hearing what the governor had done, Bacon, instead of 
marching against the Indians, returned to Jamestown, wreak- 
ing his vengeance upon all who opposed him. Governor 
Berkley fled across the bay to Accomac, but the spirit of 
rebellion had gone before him. He therefore found himself 
unable to resist Bacon, who now ranged the country at 
pleasure. 

At length, the governor, with a small force under com- 
mand of major Eobert Beverly, crossed the bay to oppose the 
malcontents. Civil war had now commenced. Jamestown 
was burnt by Bacon's followers ; various parts of the colony 
were pillaged, and the wives of those that adhered to the 
governor's party were carried to the camp of the insurgents. 

In the midst of these commotions, it jdeased the Supreme 
Kuler to withdraw Bacon by a natural death. The malcon- 
tents, thus left to recover their reason, now began to disperse. 
Two of Bacon's generals surrendered and were pardoned, and 
the people quietly returned to their homes. 

Upon this Berkley resumed the government, and peace 
was restored. This rebellion formed an era of some note in 
the history of Virginia, and its unhappy effects were felt for 
thirty years. During its continuance, husbandry was almost 
whollv nef]^lected, and such havoc was made among all kinds 



36 HiSTORTCAK AND 

of cattle that the people were threatened with distressing- 
famine. Sir William Berkley, after having been forty years 
governor of Virginia, returned to England, where he soon 
after died. 

Three years afterward, 1679, lord Culpepper was sent over 
as governor, with certain laws prepared in conformity to the 
wishes of the ministry of England, and designed to be enacted 
by the assembly in Virginia. One of those laws provided for 
raising a revenue for the support of the government. It 
made the duties perpetual, and placed them under the direc- 
tion of his majesty. 

On presenting these laws to the Assembly, Culpepper in- 
formed them that in case they were passed, he had instructions 
to offer pardon to all who had been concerned in Bacon's re- 
bellion, but if not, he had commissions to try and liang them 
as rebels, and a regiment of soldiers on the spot to support 
him. The Assembly, thus threatened, passed the laws. 

Borkley resumed the government indeal, but it seems to 
have been a bloody peace which he restored. After the death 
of Bacon, the mortified vanity of the irascible old cavalier raged 
against his broken and disbanded followers and abettors, until 
twenty-two had been hanged. It will be recollected, however, 
that he was a royalist governor, appointed by the king, and that 
his victims were the first martyrs to freedom on the American 
soil. Even the king disapproved of his ferocity. "The old 
fool," said the kind-hearted Charles II, " has taken away more 
lives in that naked country, than I for the murder of my father." 

" He would have hanged half the country had we let him 
alone," said the colonial member from Northampton to his 
colleague from Stafl:brd. 

The Nathaniel Bacon who headed this unfortunate (in one 
sense only — that he died so early,) rebellion, appears to have 
been from the first distrusted by Berkley. A native of Eng- 
land, born during the contests between parliament and the 
king, his active mind had been awakened to a consciousness 
of popular rights and popular power, he had not, therefore, 
yielded the love of freedom to the enthusiasm of royalty. 
" Possessed of a pleasant address and powerful elocution," he 
had rapidly risen to distinction in Virginia. Quick of appre- 
hension, brave, choleric, yet discreet in action, the young and 
wealthy planter carried to the banks of James river, the 



Eevolutionary Ixci dents. 37 

liberal principles which lie had gathered from " English 
experience;" no wonder, then, that groaning under the 
grievous imposition of the "navigation acts," under the 
arbitrary distribution of their lands — many of which were 
old, settled and improved plantations — given away without 
any regard to the rights of the settlers, by the careless prod- 
igality of Charles II, to such men as Lord Culpepper, one of 
the most covetous in England, and Henry, Earl of Arling- 
ton, the dissolute, but accomplished father-in-law to the king's 
son by lady Castlemain, who, in a word, became jointly, fac- 
tors of the King as joint owners of Virginia — together with 
the immediate pressure of a fierce war with the Susquehan- 
nas and Seneca Indians, retaliations for which the royalist. 
Governor Berkley, refused to sanction with his commission to 
Bacon; no wonder then, we say, that the people were " much 
infected" with the principles of this gallant planter, and of 
the Speaker of their assembly, Thomas Godwin, " notoriously 
ii friend to all the rebellion and treason which distracted Vir- 
ginia ;" no wonder, too, that the gallant Bacon was hailed as 
the " darling of their hopes, the appointed defender of Vir- 
ginia," when, having been elected by the Assembly, com- 
mander-in-chief, he took charge of the "grand rebellion in 
Virginia !" 

The rebels under his command, both in the field and as a 
leading burgess in the Assembly, having compelled the un- 
willing Berkley to concede many important demands for 
amelioration, and tliis grateful feature of the legislation of 
the Assembly having been ratified, " that better legislation " 
was completed, according to the new style of computation, on 
the fourth day of July, 1676, just one hundred years to a 
day, before the Congress of the United States adopting the 
declaration which had been fraiued by a statesman of Virginia, 
who, like Bacon, was " popularly inclined," began a new era 
in the history of man. The eighteenth century in Virginia 
was the child of the seventeenth ; and Bacon's rebellion, with 
the corresponding scenes in Maryland, Carolina, and New 
England, was the early harbinger of American independence 
.and American nationality. 

" Pretty good," says Sam, " for my Southern vagabonds ! " 
4 



PART II. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A new mystery — The rise of Luther and Protestant wars — Alvent of the 
mystery of Jesuitism. 

Though Sam was in himself a mystery of the New World,, 
yet was he not the only clouded Force to which these por- 
tentous times gave hirth, and which was to hecome alike his 
foe and the terror of the old world as well as the New. 

A mysterious Force ! yes, a terrihle mystery ! — the mys- 
tery of spiritual annihilation ! — the mystery of " walking 
corpses "•■' of humanity demonized to the greater glory of 
God! 

Momentous years were those (1537 and 1620) which 
gave birth to the order of Jesuits and to Sam. Memorable 
forever will they be in the record of human struggle. 
Strange that out of the mighty travail of the Protestant 
Revolution of the sixteenth century in Europe should have 
sprung these two births, the one so eventful to the death, the 
other to the life of hope for humanity ! that to the smiting 
of the powerful wands of Luther and Calvin, upon the 
shadowy turmoil these giant foes stepped forth, the one be- 
neath the sun of day, the other beneath the umbrage of 
deep night. 

But as we have looked upon the birth of Sam, seen some- 
thing of the stormy contrasts and opposing traits which con- 
stituted the majestic elements of the formative period of his 
career ; have, in a word, regarded his prodigious infancy at 

• Perinde ac cadaver — The last.words of the founder of the order of Jesuits^ 

38 



Keyolutionary Incidents. 39 

the North and at the South, in the early Puritan and Cav- 
alier, we may now turn our eyes on the same period in the 
coming of his arch and most deadly enemy. 

The sixteenth century was, indeed, a period of ferment in 
the world's history ! Ahsolutism had attained the climax 
of prerogative throughout the christian world. Europe was 
divided between three masters, Henry VIII, of England, 
Francis I, of France, and Charles V, of Spain, who held it 
in as many fields, and were fighting a triangular battle for 
the possession of the whole, with the aid of mercenary 
armies ; for the feudal system, trampled in the dust, was no 
longer rampant to the setting up and pulling down of kings. 

The gold of the newly-discovered Western World of Sam 
Lad now become a puissant arbitrator in these kingly 
j[uarrels, and soon the old time chimera of the "balance of 
power" seemed likely to come home to roost beneath the 
roof-tree of Charles V, of Spain, , 

Henry VIII, who, between the divorcing and beheading 
his wives, plundering the monasteries and keeping in check 
beneath his heel the dying throes of the "king-making" 
turbulence — the "Warwick" blood of his nobility — found suf- 
ficient employment at home, after the issue of the electoral 
Congress of Erankfort, to retire upon from this contest and 
leave France and Spain to fight it out. Their wars con- 
tinued to redden the fields of Europe with but little avail. 

Meanwhile, as a compensation for these evils, the human 
mind, easting off the prejudices and ignoranoe of the middle 
ages, marches to regeneration. Italy becomes for the second 
time the center from whence the light of genius and learn- 
ing shines forth over Europe. Leonardo da Vinci, Tiziano, 
Michael Angelo, are the sublime, the most divine interpreters 
of art. Pulci, Ariosto Poliziano, give a new and creative 
impulse to literature, and are the worthy descendants of 
Dante. Scholasticism, with its subtle argumentations, vague 
reasonings, and illogical deductions, is superseded by the 
practical philosophy of Lorenzo and Machiavelli, and by the 
irresistible and eloquent logic of the virtuous but unfortunate 
Savonarola. Men who, for the last three centuries, had been 
satisfied with what had been taught and said by Aristotle 
and his followers — who, as the last and incontrovertible 
argument, had been accustomed to exclaim, ipse dixit, now 



40 HiSTOEICAL AND 

begin to think for themselves, and dare to doubt and discuss 
what had hitherto been considered sacred and unassailable 
truths. The newly-awakened human intellect eagerly enters 
upon the new path, and becomes argumentative and inquir- 
ing, to the great dismay of those who deprecated diversity 
of faith ; and the Court of Eome, depending on the blind 
obedience of the credulous, anathematizing every disputer of 
the Papal infallibility, views with especial concern this 
rising spirit of inquiry, and has to tremble for its usurped 
power. 

Luther, the dogged monk, with the yearnings of an en- 
slaved and trampled world, writhing like vexed serpents in 
his brawny breast, having been treated with contumely in 
his first humble appeal to his spiritual father, the Pope, for 
the solution of the conscientious doubts which had overtaken 
him in his too earnest study of the " Holy Book," threw 
himself suddenly upon his own obdurate and self-reliant will, 
and hurling his defiance back against his late master, in 
answer to the Bull of Excommunication with which he had 
been favored, stood cap-a-pie, in the breach which he had 
already made, to battle to the death for his doctrines. 

The art of printing came opportunely to his aid, and 
wielding its magic, marvelous to tell, this burly champion 
proved meet to encounter, visor up and single hand, the ser- 
ried chivalry of Europe and the wrong. 

The German princes, partly persuaded of the truth of 
Luthers' doctrines, partly desirous to escape the exacting 
tyranny of Kome which drained their subjects' pockets, sup- 
ported the Reformer. They protested at Spires, and at 
Smalkaden made preparations to maintain their protest by 
arms. In a few years, without armed violence, but simply 
by the persuasive force of truth, the greater part of Germany 
became converted to the Reformed faith. The honest in- 
dignation of Zuinglius in Switzerland, and, conspiring with 
the diffusion of the truth, the unbridled passions of Henry 
Vin in England, alike rescued a considerable portion of their 
respective countries from the Romish yoke. In France and 
in Navarre the new doctrines found many warm adherents ; 
while in Italy itself, at Brescia, Pisa, Florence, nay even at 
Rome and at Faenza, there were many who more or less 
openly embraced the principles af the Reformation. Thus, 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 41 

in a short time, tlie Koman religion, founded in ancient 
and deep-rooted prejudices, supported by the two greatest 
powers in the world, the Pope and the Emperor, defended by 
all tne bishops and priests who lived luxuriously by it, was 
overturned throughout a great part of Europe. 

Now was the time, when gloom had settled upon the cupola 
of Si- Peter's, when the thunders of the Vatican were tamed, 
and the debauched and hoary despotism of Eome tottered on 
a thrune of straw — now was the time which was to add terror 
to teiror, crime to crime, which, in a new birth of darkness, 
was to people earth with incarnate ghosts more drear and 
poweiiul of evil than the creatures of a supernal hell. 

Thv:. period had come when, in the dulcet language of the 
FathexS of the Church, it was declared " that, as from time 
to time new heresies have inflicted the Church of God, so 
He has raised up holy men to combat them ; and as he had 
raised up St. Dominic against the Albigenses and Vaudois, 
so He sent Loyola and hi« disciples against the Lutherans 
and Calvinists."--' 

It is of this new mystery, according to such authority, 
" raised up by God," to resist those elements out of which 
the birth of Sam came, that we would now proceed to nar- 
rate. 

* Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, Religieux et Militaires, tome 
vii, p. 452. When we have modern authors we quote from Sacchinus Or- 
laniinus, etc., we shall quote them, as books are easily to be had. 
4* 



CHAPTER VII. 

Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order — Spiritual exercises — The 
Weeks — The Contemplations — Loyola a Pilgrim to the Holy Places — His 
persecutions — His first disciples, Xavier, Le Fevre — Lainez and Rodri- 
gues vow to go to the Holy Land and convert Infidels — Vow of perpetual 
chastity and poverty — The vow of unquestioning obedience — Refusal of 
the Holy See to recognize the Order — Cunning vow of obedience to the 
Pope — Obtains his recognition — Bull of recognition. 

Inigo, or, as commonly called, Ignatius Loyola, the young- 
est of eleven children, of a noble and ancient family, was 
born in the year 1491, in his father's castle of Loyola at 
Guipuscoa in Spain. He was of middle stature and rather 
dark complexion; had deep-set, piercing eyes, and a hand- 
some and noble countenance. While yet young he had be- 
come bald, which gave him an expression of dignity, that 
was not impaired by a lameness arising from a severe wound. 
His father, a worldly man, as his biographer says, instead of 
sending him to some holy community to be instructed in 
religion and piety, placed him as a page at the court of Fer- 
dinand V. But Ignatius, naturally of a bold and aspiring 
disposition, soon found that no glory was to be reaped in the 
antechambers of the Catholic King ; and delighting in mili- 
tary exercises, he became a soldier — and a brave one he 
proved. His historians, to make his subsequent conversion 
appear more wonderful and miraculous, have represented him 
as a perfect monster of iniquity ; but, in truth, he was merely 
a gay soldier, fond of pleasure, no doubt, yet not more de- 
bauched than the generality of his brother officers. His 
profligacy, whatever it was, did not prevent him from being 
a man of strict honor, never backward in time of danger. 

At the defense of Pampeluna against the French, in 1521, 
Ignatius, while bravely performing his duty on the walls, 
was struck down by a ball, which disabled both his legs. 
42 



Revolutionary Incidents. 43 

With him fell the courage of the besieged. They yielded, 
and the victors entering the town, found the wounded officer, 
and kindly sent him to his father's castle, which was not far 
distant. Here he endured all the agonies which generally 
attend gunshot wounds, and an inflammatory fever which 
supervened, brought him to the verge of the grave — when, 
"O! miracle!" exclaims his biographer, "it being the eve 
of the feast of the glorious saints Peter and Paul, the prince 
of the apostles appeared to him in a vision, and touched him, 
whereby he was, if not immediately restored to health, at 
least put in a fair way of recovery." Now the fact is, that 
the patient uttered not a syllable regarding his vision at the 
time; nevertheless, we are gravely asstired that the miracle 
was not the less a fact. Be this, however, as it may, Igna- 
tius undoubtedly recovered, though slowly. 

During his long convalescence, he sought to beguile the 
tedious hours of irksome inactivity passed in the sick cham- 
ber by reading all the books of knight-errantry which could 
be procured. The chivalrous exploits of the Rolands and 
Amadises made a deep impression upon his imagination, 
which, rendered morbidly sensitive by a long illness, may 
well be supposed to have been by no means improved by such 
a course of study. When these books were exhausted, some 
pious friend brought him the Lives of the Saints. This 
work, however, not suiting his taste, Ignatius at first flung 
it aside in disgust, but afterward, from sheer lack of better 
amusement, he began to read it. It presented to him a new 
phase of the romantic and marvelous, in which he so much 
delighted. He soon became deeply interested, and read it 
over and over again. The strange adventures of these 
saints — the praise, the adoration, the glorious renown which 
they acquired, so fired his mind, that he almost forgot his 
favorite Paladins. His ardent ambition saw here a new 
career opened up to it. He longed to become a saint. 

Yet the military life had not lost its attractions for him. 
It did not require the painful preparations necessary to earn 
a saintly reputation, and was, moreover, more in accordance 
wdth his education and tastes. He long hesitated which course 
to adopt — whether he should win the laurels of a hero, or 
earn the crown of a saint. Had he perfectly recovered from 
the effects of his wound, there is little doubt but that he 



44 Historical and 

would have cliosen the laurels. But this was not to be. 
Although he was restored to health, his leg remained hope- 
lessly deformed — he was a cripple for life. 

It appeared that his restorer, St. Peter, although upon the 
whole a tolerably good physician, was by no means an expert 
surgeon. The broken bone of his leg had not been properly 
set ; part of it protruded through the skin below the knee, 
and the limb was short. Sorely, but vainly, did Ignatius 
strive to remove these impediments to a military career, 
which his unskillful though saintly surgeon had permitted to 
remain. He had the projecting piece of bone sawn off, and 
his shortened leg painfully extended by mechanical appliances, 
in the hope of restoring it to its original fine proportions. 
The attempt failed ; so he found himself, at the age of thir- 
ty-two, with a shrunken limb, with little or no renown, and 
by his incurable lameness, rendered but slightly capable of 
acquiring military glory. Nothing then remained for him 
but to become a saint. 

Saintship being thus, as it were, forced upon him, he at 
once set about the task of achieving it, with all that ardor 
which he brought to bear upon every pursuit. He became 
daily absorbed in the most profound meditations, and made a 
full confession of all his past sins, which was so often inter- 
rupted by his passionate outbursts of penitent weeping, 
that it lasted three days.* To stimulate his devotion, he 
lacerated his flesh with the scourge, and abjuring his past 
life, he hung up his sword beside the altar in the church of 
tha convent of Montserrat. Meeting a beggar on the public 
road, he exchanged clothes with him, and thus habited in 
the loathsome rags of the mendicant, he retired to a cave 
near Menreze, where he nearly starved himself. 

When he next reappeared in public, he found his hopes 
almost realized. His fame had spread far and wide ; the 
people flocked from all quarters to see him — visited his cave 
with feelings of reverend curiosity — and nothing was 
thought of but the holy man and his severe penances. But 
now the Evil Spirit began to assail him. The tender con- 
science of Ignatius began to torment him with the fear that 
all this public notice had made him proud ; that, while he had 

*• Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil,, tome vii, page 456. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 45 

almost b(!gun to consider himself a saint, lie was, in reality, by 
reason of l]iat belief itself, the most heinous of sinners. So 
imbittered did his life become in consequence of these 
thoughts, that he went well nigh distracted. 

But God supported him ; and the Tempter, baffled in his 
attempts, fled. Ignatius fasted for seven days, neither eat- 
ing nor drinking ; went again to the confessional, and, re- 
ceiving absolution, was not only delivered from the stings of 
his own conscience, but obtained the gift of healing the troubled 
consciences of othersP This miraculous gift Ignatius is be- 
lieved to have transmitted to his successors, and it is in a 
great measure to this belief, that the enormous influence of 
the Company of Jesus is to be attributed, as we shall see 
hereafter. 

Now that Ignatius could endure his saintship, without be- 
ing overwhelmed by a feeling of sinfulness, he pursued his 
course with renewed alacrity. Yet it was in itself by no 
means an attractive one. In order to be a perfect Cath- 
olic saint, a man must become a sort of misanthrope — cast 
aside wholesome and cleanly apparel, go about clothed in 
filthy rags, wearing haircloth next his skin, and, renouncing 
the world and its inhabitants, must retire to some noisome 
den, there to live in solitary meditation, with wild roots and 
water for food, daily applying the scourge to expiate his 
sins — of which, according to one of the disheartening doc- 
trines of the Catholic Church, even the just commit at least 
seven a day. The saint must enter into open rebellion against 
the laws and instincts of human nature, and consequently, 
ao;ainst the will of the Creator. And althouo-h it can not be 
denied that some of the founders of monastic orders conscien- 
tiously believed that their rules were conducive to holiness 
and eternal beatitude, nevertheless, we may with justice, 
charge them with overlooking the fact that, as the transgres- 
sion of the laws of nature invariably brings along with it its 
own punishment — a certain evidence of the Divine displea- 
sure — true holiness can not consist in disregarding and op- 
posing them. 

Ignatius, however, continued his life of penance, made 
to the Virgin Mary a solemn vow of perpetual chastiuy, 

'^Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil., tome vii, page 456. 



46 HiSTOEICAL AND 

begged for bread, often scourged himself, and spent many 
hours a day in prayer and meditation. What he meditated 
upon, God only knows. After a few months of this ascetic 
life, he published a little book, which much increased his 
fame for sanctity. It is a small octavo volume, and bears 
the title of Spiritual Exercises:-' As this work, the only one 
he has left, is the acknowledged standard of the Jesuits' re- 
ligious practice, and is by them extolled to the skies, we 
must say some few words about it. 

First of all we shall relate tlie supernatural origin assigned 
to it by the disciples and panegyrists of its author. 

He (Ignatius) had already done much for God's sake, and 
God now rendered it back to him with usury. A courtier, a 
man of pleasure, and a soldier, he had neither the time nor 
the will to gather knowledge from books. Bat the knowl- 
edge of man, the most difficult of all, was divinely revealed 
to him. The master who was to form so many masters, was 
himself formed by divine illumination. He composed the 
Spiritual Exercises, a work which had a most important place 
in his life, and is powerfully reflected in the history of his 
disciples. 

This quotation is from Cretineau Jc^ly, (vol. i, p. 18,) an 
author who professes not to belong to the society but whose 
book was published under the patronage of the Jesuits, who, 
he says, opened to him all the depositories of unpublished 
letters and manuscripts in their principal convent, the Gesu 
at Eome ; he wrote also a virulent pamphlet against the 
great Pontiff Clement XIV, the suppressor of the Jesuits. 
Hence we consider ourselves fairly entitled to rank the few 
quotations we shall make from him as among those emanat- 
ing from the writers that belong to the Order ; and we are 
confident that no Jesuit would ever think of repudiating 
Cretineau Joly. This author proceeds to state that in the 
manuscript in which Father Jouvency narrates in elegant 



'- By the term Spiritual Exercises, Catholics understand that course of 
solitary prayer and religious meditation, generally extended over many 
days, which candidates for holy orders have to perform in the seclusion of 
a convent, previous to being consecrated. Again, when a priest incurs 
the displeasure of his Superior, he is sent as a sort of prisoner to some 
convent, there to perform certain prescribed spiritual exercises, which, in 
this case, may last from one to three weeks. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 47 

Latin those strange events, it is said — tliis light shed by the 
divine will upon Ignatius showed him oj^enly and without vail 
the mystery of the adorable Trinty and other arcana of re- 
ligion. He remained for eight days as if deprived of life. 
What he witnessed during this ecstatic trance, as well as in 
many other visions which he had during life, no one knows. 
He had indeed committed these celestial visions to paper, but 
shortly before his death he burned the book containing them, 
lest it should fall into unworthy hands. A few pages, how- 
ever, escaped his precautions, and from them one can easily 
conjecture that he must have been from day to day loaded 
with still greater favors. Chiefly was he sweetly ravished 
in contemplating the dignity of Christ the Lord, and his in- 
conceivable charity toward the human race. As the mind of 
Ignatius was filled with military ideas, he figured to himself 
Christ as a general fighting for the divine glory, and calling 
on all men to gather under his standard. Hence sprang his 
desire to form an army of which Jesus should be the chief 
and commander, the standard inscribed — ^'Ad maJo7'cm Dei 
Gloricmi." 

With deference to M, Joly, we think that a more mundane 
origin may be found for the "Exercises," in the feverish 
dreams of a heated imagination. Be this as it may, however, 
we shall proceed to lay before our readers a short analysis 
of it, extracted from Cardinal Wiseman's preface to the last 
edition. He says : " This is a practical, not a theoretical 
work. It is not a treatise on sin or on virtue ; it is not a 
method of Christian perfection, but it contains the entire 
practice of perfection, by making us at once conquer sin and 
acquire the highest virtue. The person who goes through 
the Exercises is not instructed, but is made to act ; and this 
book will not be intelligible apart from this view." 

The reader will observe that it is divided into four weeks; 
and each of these has a specific object, to advance the exer- 
citant an additional step toward perfect virtue. If the work 
of each week be thoroughly done, this is actually/ accomplished.^ 

"The first week has for its aim the cleansing of the con- 
science from past sin, and of the aflfections from their future 
dangers. For this purpose, the soul is made to convince 

•^ The italics here are our own. 



48 Historical and 

itself deeply of the true end of its hemg — to serve God and 
be saved, and of the real inutility of all else. This considera- 
tion has been justly called by St. Ignatius, the principle or 
foimdation of the entire system." The Cardinal assures us 
that the certain result of this first week's exercises is, that 
"sin is abandoned, hated, loathed." 

" In the second, the life of Christ is made our model; by 
a series of contemplations of it, we become familiar with its 
virtues, enamored of his perfections ; we learn, by copying 
him, to be obedient to God and man ; meek, humble, aifec- 
tionate ; zealous, charitable, and forgiving; men of only one 
wish and one thought — that of doing ever God's holy will 
alone ; discreet, devout, observant of every law, scrupulous 
performers of every duty. Everj meditation on these sub- 
jects shows us how to do all this ; in fact, makes us really 
do it."-' The third week brings us to this. Having desired 
and tried to be like Christ in action, we are brought to wish 
and to endeavor to be like unto him in suffering. For this 
purpose his sacred passion becomes the engrossing subject of 
the Exercises. But she (the soul) must be convinced and 
feel, that if she suffers, she also shall be glorified with him ; 
and hence the fourth and concluding week raises the soul to 
the consideration of those glories which crowned the humilia- 
tions and suffering of our Lord." Then after a highly fig- 
urative eulogium upon the efficacy of the Exercises " duly 
performed," the reverend prelate proceeds to show that the 
one "essential element of a spiritual retreat,'.' (for so the 
Exercises reduced to action are properly called,) "is directi07i." 
In the Catholic church no one is ever allowed to trust him- 
self in spiritual matters. The sovereign pontiff is obliged to 
submit himself to the direction of another in whatever con- 
cerns his own soul. The life of a good retreat is a good 
director of it. This director modifies, (according to certain 
written rules,) the order of the Exercises, to adapt them to 
the peculiar character of the exercitant ; regulates the time 
employed in them, watches their effects, and like a physician 
prescribing for a patient, varies the treatment according to 
the symptoms exhibited, encouraging those which soem 
favorable, and suppressing those which are detrimental to the 

" Stephens. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 49 

desired result. "Let no one," says the Cardinal, "think of 
undertaking these holy Exercises without the guidance of a 
prudent and experienced director." 

It will be seen that the weeks of the Exercises do not 
mean necessarily a period of seven days. The original periotl 
of their performance was certainly a month ; hut even so, 
more or less time was allotted to each week's work according 
to the discretion of the director. Now, except in very par- 
ticular circumstances, the entire period is abridged to ten 
days ; sometimes it is still further reduced. 

It will be observed from the above extracts that the Car- 
dinal, ignoring the fact that the sinner's conversion must be 
effected entirely by the operation of the Holy Spirit, seems 
to regard the unregenerate human soul merely as a piece of 
raw material, which the " director " may, as it were, mmiu- 
facturemio a saint, simply by subjecting it to the process 
prescribed in the Exercises. 

In regard to the merits of the book, I cannot agree either 
with Wiseman or a very brilliant Protestant writer,-'^' who, 
speaking of the approbation bestowed on it by Pope Paul HI, 
says — "Yet on this subject the chair of Knox, if now filled 
by himself, would not be very widely at variance with the 
throne of St. Peter." The book certainly does not deserve 
this high eulogium. However, it cannot be denied that, 
amidst many recommendations of many absurd and super- 
stitious practices proper to the Popish religion, the little 
volume does contain some very good maxims and precepts. 
For instance, here are two passages to which I am sure that 
not even the most anti-Catholic Protestant could reasonably 
object. At page 16 it is said : 

" Man was created for this end, that he might praise and 
reverence the Lord his God, and, serving him, at length be 
saved.-j- But the other things which are placed on the earth 
were created for man's sake, that they might assist him in 
pursuing the end of creation, whence it follows, that they 
are to be used or abstained from in proportion as they benefit 
or hinder him in pursuing that end. Wherefore we ought 
to be indifferent toward all created things (in so far as they 
are subject to the liberty of our will, and not prohibited), so 



'Stephens. f^ee the Shorter Catechism, Qu. 1. 



60 HiSTOKICAL AND 

that (to the best of our power) we seek not health more than 
sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty, honor to contempt, a 
long life to a short one. But it is fitting, out of all, to choose 
and desire those things only which lead to the end." And 
again, at page 33, "the third (article for meditation) is, to 
consider myself; who or what kind I am, adding comparisons 
which may bring me to a greater contempt of myself; as if 
I reflect how little I am when compared with all men, then 
what the whole multitude of mortals is, as compared with 
the angels and all the blessed : after these things I must 
consider what, in fact, all the creation is in comparison with 
God, the Creator, himself ; what now can I, one mere human 
being, be ! Lastly, let me look at the corruption of my whole 
self, the wickedness of my soul, and the pollution of my body, 
and account myself to be a kind of ulcer or boil, from which 
so great and foul a flood of sins, so great a pestilence of vices 
has flown down. 

" The fourth is to consider what God is, whom I have thus 
offended, collecting the perfections which are God's peculiar 
attributes and comparing them with my opposite vices and 
defects ; comparing, that is to say, his supreme power, wis- 
dom, goodness, and justice, with my extreme weakness, 
ignorance, wickedness, and iniquity." 

But then the above Exercises are followed by certain Ad- 
ditions, which are recommended as conducing to their better 
performance. Same of these are very strange ; for instance, 
the fourth is, " to set about the Contemplation itself, now kneel- 
ing on the ground, now lying on my face or on my back, now 
sitting or standing, and composing myself, in the way in 
which I may hope the more easily to attain what I desire. 
In which matter, these two things must be attended to ; the 
first that if, on my knees or in any other posture, I obtain 
what I wish, I seek nothing further. The second, that on 
the point in which I shall have attained the devotion I seek, 
I ought to rest, without being anxious about pressing on until 
I shall have satisfied myself. The sixth, that I avoid those 
thoughts which bring joy, as that of the glorious resurrection 
of Christ ; since any such thought hinders the tears and grief 
for my sins, which must then be sought by calling in mind 
rather death or judgment. The seventh, that, for the same 
reason, I deprive myself of all the brightness of the light, 



REVOLUTio>jARy Tncidexts. 51 

shutting the doors and windows so long as I remain there (m 
my chamber), except while I have to read, or take my food." 
At page 55 we find, in the second Week : " The Fifth Con- 
templation is the application of the senses to those (contem- 
plations) mentioned above. After the preparatory prayer, 
with the three already mentioned preludes, it is eminently 
usefid to exercise the five imaginary senses concerning the 
first and second contemplations in the following way, accord- 
ing as the subject shall bear : 

' The first point will be, to see in imagination all the per- 
sons, and, noting the circumstances which shall occur con- 
cerning them, to draw out what may be profitable to 
ourselves. 

' The second, by hearing as it were, what they are saying, 
or what it may be natural for them to say, to turn all to our 
own advantage. 

' The third, to perceive, by a certain inward taste and 
smell, how great is the sweetness and delightfulness of the 
soul imbued with divine gifts and virtues, according to the 
nature of the person we are considering, adapting to our- 
selves those things which may bring us some fruit. 

' The fourth, by an inward touch, to handle and kiss the 
garments, places, footsteps, and other things connected witli 
such persons ; whence we may derive a greater increase of 
devotion, or of any spiritual good. 

* This contemplation will be terminated, like the former 
ones, by adding in like manner, Pater noster.^ " 

At page 52, among other things " to be noted," is : 

" The second, that the first exercise concerning the Incarna- 
tion of Christ is performed at midnight ; the next at dawn ; the 
third about the hour of mass ; the fourth about the time of 
vespers ; the fifth a little before supper, and on each of them 
will be spent the sijace of one hour ; which same thing has 
to be observed henceforward, everywhere." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued in the New 
World — Cant of Bancroft the Historian — Illustrations— Martyrdom ? — 
Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions — League of the Iroquois — Intrigues 
of the Jesuits — First Intercolonial War — Predominance of Jesuit Insti 
gation. 

But the Jesuit Wolf was not the only arch instigator of 
the Border Wars and their attendant massacres and burnings 
belonging to his Order. These indefatigable and bloody foes 
of Protestantism in all its shades and forms — not content with 
the slaughter of the Albigenses and Waldenses — the St. Bar- 
tholomew days — the reeking battlefields, the plundered 
provinces and sacked cities, with which their ferocious coun- 
cils and insidious intrigues had devastated the old world — no 
sooner learn that some feeble remnants of, their purposed 
victims have fled for refuge to the savage wilderness of the 
New World than, in pursuance of that deadly vow of exter- 
mination which was the basis of Jesuit organization, they 
follow them hither, and at once renew the fatal strife. 

With the crafty humility which has ever characterized 
their initial proceedings, they came at first the single, lowly 
enthusiast of the cross, and then in little squads of twos and 
threes, with scrip and staS" — the mock heralds of the Prince 
of Peace — the mild and patient bearers of " glad tidings " 
to the benighted red-man. But it is impossible for the 
feeble pen of the historian of " Sam " to do justice to the 
immaculate virtues of this heroic and self-denying Order. 
Hear, rather, the words of one whose lips have evidently been 
touched with " Holy fire," and flame forth in words meet to 
celebrate such transfigurations of the Divine in the human, 
as these Jesuit missionaries appear to him — even the Nestor 
of Yankee historians, George Bancroft ! He alone may 
speak fittingly of such a theme, with that poetical effulgence 
of diction which, in its resonant raptures, has fairly cowed the 
52 



Revolutionary IxciDr.XTS. 53 

sober seeming of tlie grave historic muse with the stately 
turn turn of Someric measures wherever he touches this topic. 
Behold, then, the Jesuits Brebeuf and Daniel, soon to be 
followed by the gentler Lallemand, and many others of their 
-order, bowing meekly in obedience to their vows, and joining 
a party of barefoot Hurons, who were returning from Quebec 
to their country. The journey, by way of the Ottawa and 
the rivers that interlock with it, was one of more than three 
hundred leagues, through a region horrible with forests. 
All day long, the missionaries must wade, or handle the oar. 
At night, there is no food for them but a scanty measure of 
Indian corn mixed with water ; their couch is the earth or 
the rocks. At five and thirty waterfalls, the canoe is to be 
carried on the shoulders for leagues through thickest woods, 
or over roughest regions ; fifty times it was dragged by hand 
through shallows and rapids, over sharpest stones ; and thus, 
swimming, wading, paddling, or bearing the canoe across the 
portages, with garments torn, with feet mangled, yet with the 
breviary safely hung round the neck, and vows, as they ad- 
vanced, to meet death twenty times over, if it were possible, 
for the honor of St. Joseph, the consecrated envoys made their 
way, by rivers, lakes and forests, from Quebec to the heart of the 
Huron wilderness. There, to the north-west of Lake Toronto, 
near the shore of Lake Iroquois, which is but a bay of Lake 
Huron, they raised the first humble house of the Society of 
Jesus among the Hurons — the cradle, it was said, of his 
church who dwelt at Bethlehem in a cottage. (1634.) The 
little chapel, built by the aid of the ax, and consecrated 
to St. Joseph, where, in the gaze of thronging crowds, ves- 
pers and matins began to be clianted, and the sacred bread 
was consecrated by solemn mass, amazed the hereditary 
guardians of the council-fires of the Huron tribes. Beautiful 
testimony to the equality of the human race ! the sacred 
wafer, emblem of the divinity in man, all that the church 
oflPered to the princes and nobles of the European world, was 
shared with the humblest of the savage neophytes. The 
hunter, as he returned from his wide roamings, was taught 
to hope for eternal rest ; the braves, as they came from ware 
were warned of the wrath which kindles against sinners a 
never-dying fire, fiercer far than the fires of the Mohawks ; 
the idlers of the Indian villages were told the exciting talo 
5* 



54: Historical and 

of the Savior's death for their redemption. Two new Christian" 
villages, St. Louis and St. Ignatius, bloomed among the 
Huron forests. The dormant sentiment of pious veneration 
was awakened in many breasts, and there came to be even 
earnest and ascetic devotees uttering prayers and vows in the 
Huron tongue — while tawny skeptics inquired, if there were 
indeed, in the center of the earth, eternal flames for the 
unbelieving. 

The missionaries themselves possessed the weaknesses and 
the virtues of their Order. For fifteen years enduring the 
infinite labors and perils of the Huron mission, and exhibiting, 
as it was said, " an absolute pattern of every religious virtue," 
Jean de Brebeuf, respecting even the nod of his distant 
Superiors, bowed his mind and his judgment to obedience. 
Beside the assiduous fatigues of his ofiice, eai^h day, and 
sometimes twice in the day, he applied to himself the lash ; 
beneath a bristling hair shirt he wore an iron girdle, armed 
on all sides with projecting points ; his fasts were frequent; 
almost always his pious vigils continued deep into the night. 
In vain did Asmodeus assume for him the forms of earthly 
beauty ; his eye rested benignantly on visions of divine 
things. Once, imparadised in a trance, he beheld the Mother 
of Him whose cross he bore, surrounded by a crowd of vir- 
gins, in the beatitudes of heaven. (1640.) Once, as he 
liimself has recorded, while engaged in penance, he saw- 
Christ unfold his arms to embrace him with the utmost love, 
[•romising oblivion of his sins. Once, late at night, while 
praying in the silence, he had a vision of an infinite number 
of crosses, and, with mighty heart, he strove, again and 
again, to grasp them all. Often he saw the shapes of foul 
fiends, now appearing as madmen, now as raging beasts ; and 
often he beheld the image of death, a bloodless form, by the 
side of the stake, struggling with bonds, and, at last, falling, 
as a harmless specter, at his feet. Having vowed to seek out 
suffering for the greater glory of God, he renewed that vow 
every day, at the moment of tasting the sacred wafer ; and, 
as his cupidity for martyrdom grew into a passion, he ex- 
claimed, " What shall I render to thee, Jesus, my Lord, for 
all thy benefits ? I will accept thy cup, and invoke thy 
name ;" and, in sight of the Eternal Father and the Holy 
Spirit, of the most holy IMother of Christ, and St. Joseph, 



EEVOLUTiONARV INCIDENTS. 55 

before angels, apostles, and martyrs, before St. Ignatius and 
Francis Xavier, he made a vow never to decline the opportu- 
nity of martyrdom, and never to receive the death-blow but 
with joy. (1G38.) 

The life of a missionary on Lake Huron was simple and 
uniform. The earliest hours, from four to eight were ab- 
sorbed in private prayer ; the day was given to schools, visits, 
instruction in the catechism, and a service for proselytes. 
Sometimes, after the manner of St. Francis Xavier, Brebeuf 
wouhl walk through the village and its environs, ringing a 
little bell, and inviting the Huron braves and counselors to a 
conference. There, under the shady forest, the most solemn 
mysteries of the Catholic faith were subjected to discussion. 
It was by such means that the sentiment of piety w^s un- 
folded in the breast of the great warrior Ahasistari. Nature 
had planted in his mind the seeds of religious faith : " Be- 
fore you came to this country," he would say, " when I have 
incurred the greatest perils, and have alone escaped, I have 
said to myself, ' Some powerful spirit has the guardianship 
of my days ;' " and he professed his belief in Jesus, as the 
'good genius and protector, whom he had before unconsciously 
adored. After trials of his sincerity, he was baptized ; and, 
enlisting a troop of converts, savages like himself, "Lot us 
strive," he exclaimed, "to make the whole world embrace 
the faith in Jesus." 

But this is too good to be all. Our quondam historian 
who, as may be seen from his account of Jean de Brebeuf, 
has studied the ecstaticism of Jesuit narrative witli an ear- 
nestness strongly savoring of a conviction in faith, gives us 
another precious morceau from the same reliable source, 
which exhibits his huge relish for such spicy viands. 

The Jesuits are determined to push a Mission into the 
country of the unwilling Mohawk. 

" Each sedentary Mission was a special point of attraction 
to the invader, and each, therefore, was liable to the horrors 
of an Indian massacre. Such was the fate of tlie village of 
St. Joseph. On the morning of July 4, 1648, when the 
braves were absent on the chase, and none but women, diild- 
ren, and old men, remained at home, Father Anthony Dan- 
iel hears the cry of danger and confusion. He flies to the 
scene to behold his converts, in the apathy of terror, falling 



56 Hjstokical and 

victims to the fury of Moliawks. No age, however tender, 
excites merc}^; no feebleness of sex wins compassion. A 
group of women and children fly to him to escape the toma- 
hawk — as if his lips, uttering messages of love, could pro- 
nounce a spell that would curb the madness of destruction. 
Those who had formerly scoffed his mission, implore the ben- 
efit of baptism. He bids them ask forgiveness of God, and, 
dipping his handkerchief in water, baptizes the crowd of 
suppliants by aspersion. Just then, the palisades are forced. 
Should he fly '? He first ran to the wigwams to baptize the 
sick ; he next pronounced a general absolution on all who 
sought it, and then prepared to resign his life as a sacrifice 
to his vows. (1648.) The wigwams are set on fire; the 
Mohawks approach the chapel, and the consecrated envoy 
serenely advances to meet them. Astonishment seized the 
barbarians. At length, drawing near, they discharge at him 
a flight of arrows. All gashed and rent by wounds, he still 
continued to speak with surprising energy — now inspiring- 
fear of the divine anger, and again, in gentle tones, yet of 
more piercing power than the whoops of the savages, breath- 
ing the affectionate messages of mercy and grace. Such 
were his actions till he received a death-blow from a halbert. 
The victim to the heroism of charity died, the name of Jesus 
on his lips ; the wilderness gave him a grave ; the Huron 
nation were his mourners. By his religious associates it was 
believed that he appeared twice after his death, youthfully 
radiant in the sweetest form of celestial glory ; that, as the 
reward for his torments, a crowd of souls, redeemed from 
purgatory, were his honoring escort into heaven." 

One more glimpse of these poetic pictures, and we shall 
turn to common sense. The prevalence of peace now favored 
the advance of the French, or rather Jesuit, dominion. 

" For the succeeding years, the illustrious triumvirate, 
Alloviez, Dablon, and Marquette, were employed in confirming 
the influence of France in the vast regions that extend from 
Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior — mingling happi- 
ness with suffering, and winning enduring glory by their fear- 
less perseverance. For to what inclemencies, from nature and 
from man, was each missionary among the barbarians exposed ! 
He defies the severity of climate, wading through water or 
through snows, without the comfort of fire ; having no bread 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 57 

but pounded maize, and often no food but the unwholesome moss 
from the rocks ; laboring incessantly ; exposed to live, as it 
were, without nourishment, to sleep without a resting-place, 
to travel far, and always incurring perils — to carry his life 
in his hand, or rather daily, and oftener than every day, to 
hold it up as a target, expecting captivity, death from the 
tomahawk, tortures, fire. And yet the simplicity and the 
freedom of life in the wilderness had their charms. The 
heart of the missionary would swell with delight, as, under 
a serene sky, and with a mild temperature, and breathing a 
pure air, he moved over waters as transparent as the most 
limpid fountain. Every encampment offered his attendants 
the pleasures of the chase. Like a patriarch, he dwelt be- 
neath a tent ; and of the land through which he walked, he 
was its master, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, 
profiting by its productions, without the embarrassment of 
ownership. How often was the pillow of stones like that 
where Jacob felt the presence of God ! How often did the 
ancient oak, of which the centuries were untold, seem like 
the tree of Mamre, beneath which Abraham broke bread 
with angels ! Each day gave the pilgrim a new site for his 
dwelling, which the industry of a few moments would erect, 
and for which nature provided a floor of green, inlaid with 
flowers. On every side clustered beauties, which art had not 
spoiled, and could not imitate." 

Now, apart from all this sky-rocketing of words, the plain 
historical truth concerning these so much vaunted missionary 
movements of the Jesuits, is clearly about this. Their 
sleuth-hound vengeance crossed the sea upon the track of 
that Protestantism which they had, as an Order, sworn to 
exterminate. Next to this vow, the aggrandizement of the 
Order, "to the greater glory of" — Loyola, was the next 
most vital consideration, and, in America, they only pursued 
the same policy in reference to this particular end which had 
characterized their operations in India, China, Japan, Para- 
guay, California, and elsewhere ; their object being, clearly. 
in the formation of Missions, to create so many fiefs of the 
Order, the revenues of which would enure to the swelling 
its treasury. 

In North America, beside the tithes, which being paid in 



58 Historical and 

the rich furs of the country, were by no means inconsider- 
able, the Missions established would answer the double 
purpose of revenue and revenge ; since uniformly cul- 
tivating in the hearts of their converts the most implac- 
able enmity againt Protestantism, the Order were enabled at 
any time, to harass and devastate . the hated settlements. 
And, again, having as an Order been several times banished 
from France, as well as from every other government of 
Europe as enemies to internal peace, they felt it necessary 
to purchase toleration by the splendor of their discoveries in 
pushing exploration so far ahead of settlement. Nor did all 
these combined, constitute the yet most important considera- 
tion to the ambitious Jesuit. 

They early perceived, with that sure intelligence of fore- 
sight which lias uniformly marked their operations, the 
future glory and grandeur of this New World, and they 
determined to establish for tliemselves here, a Theocratic 
empire, which would be to the Order — amidst the convulsions 
which their intrigues continued to cause in Europe — as a 
House of Refuge to which they might, as a last resort, fly for 
safety, and hold as a point d 'appui, from which they might 
renew the contest. 

See how clearly they have apprehended the importance of 
the NcAV Hemisphere in this light. Paraguay, indeed the 
whole of South America, and Mexico on the south, Cali- 
fornia on the west. New France, or Canada on the north, all 
occupied by the proposed Theocracy — thus hemming in the 
beleaguered Protestants on three sides. What South Amer- 
ica, Mexico and California have been — and the tAvo first yet 
remaining so — virtual Theocracies — that is, governments in 
which the priesthood standing as the representatives of God, 
are alone accountable to Him for both the spiritual and tem- 
poral of their subject — or in other words, constitute the 
supreme governing power in the State — no one will at this 
day pretend to deny. That New France or Canada, was also 
ruled into a strict Theocracy by the Jesuits, is clearly sus- 
ceptible of proof, throughout the entire cotemporary history 
of that period. La Hontan, an intelligent traveler, natu- 
ralist and cosmopolite — twenty years after New France had 
been established a bishopric through the enterprise of the 



Eevolutioxary Ixciden'ts. 50 

Josuits — complains grievously of this priestly despotism, and 
after the remark, " that at Montreal it was a perpetual Lent," 
continues : 

We have here a misanthropical bigot of a curd, under 
U'hose spiritual despotism, play and visiting the ladies are 
reckoned among the mortal sins. If you have the misfor- 
tune to be on his black list, he launches at you publicly, from 
the pulpit, a bloody censure. As Messieurs, the priests of St. 
Sulpice, are our temporal lords, they take the greater liberty 
to tyrannize over us. To keep well with them, it is neces- 
sary to communicate once a month. These Arguses have 
their eyes constantly on the conduct of the women and the 
girls. Fathers and husbands may sleep in all assurance, 
unless they have some suspicions as to these vigilant sentinels 
themselves. Of all the vexation of these disturbers, I found 
none so intolerable as their war upon books. None are to be 
found here but books of devotion. All others are prohibited 
and condemned to the flames. Our author winds up with a 
ludicrous account how his Petronius, left by accident on his 
table, was mutilated by a devout priest, who took it upon 
himself to tear out all the best leaves, i nder pretense that 
they were scandalous. '* No one dare to be absent from 
great masses and sermons without special excuse. These are 
the times, however, at which the women take a little liberty, 
beino; sure that their husbands and mothers are at church.'^ 

Such is the concurrent testimony of all cotemporary 
writers — amply sustained as it is by the invariable usage 
and determination of Catholic — but more especially Jesuit 
institutions. But were such cotemporary evidence wanting 
at a time when the learning of the world was principally in 
the keeping of the catholic priesthood, there yet remains 
the broad and well-established historical fact, that the inter- 
colonial wars between the English and other Protestant col- 
onies on the north, and the Indians and Canadian Frencli, 
were instigated personally by these saintly Jesuit missionaries 
themselves, and that the murderous forays of the Indians 
upon these settlements, were even led by these meek mis- 
sionaries of peace. Indeed, all that saved these northern 
colonies from absolute extermination, was the success of that 
sagacious policy of the early Dutch governors of New 
Amsterdam, in securing the friendship and allegiance of the 



60 Historical axd 

powerful and warlike Iroquois or Five Nations, established in 
the north of New York. This alliance also, politically courted 
and nourished by the New England colonies, was for a long 
period successfully maintained; opposing this formidable 
Indian confederacy as a barrier between their weak but grow- 
ing settlements and the exterminating hate of the Jesuits. 
It was during the desperate efforts of these priests to gain a 
foothold among the Iroquois for their Missions, with a view 
to breaking up this — for them — unlucky league, by their 
intrigues, that all those bloody scenes occurred, which we have 
seen so elaborately celebrated in the Elegiac prose of the 
sympathizing historian, Bancroft. A choice subject for the 
lugubrious monodies of an American historian surely ! Had 
the Jesuits, whose fate is thus deplored, succeeded earlier — 
as they did finally to some extent — in their scheme of dis- 
rupturing this alliance, and turned loose upon the weak set- 
tlements of the Protestant colonies, the fierce warrior hordes 
of the Five Nations, in addition to those formidable tribes 
which already yielded to their supremacy, no doubt our ten- 
der-hearted historian would have had ample inspiration for 
the change of his Elegiacs into Idyls, or found full employ- 
ment in sounding the Te Deum to Loyola ! Terribly as the 
colonies suffered as it was — with the Iroquois sometimes allies 
but most frequently neutral — there can bo no question of the 
entire subjugation, if not annihilation of the Protestant 
colonies of the north, had such an event as this disruption 
taken place. Hildreth says : 

Whatever the success of the French missionaries among 
the more northern and western tribes, they encountered in 
the Iroquois, or Five Nations, firm and formidable opponents. 
That celebrated confederacy, beside subject tribes, included 
five allied communities : the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onon- 
dagas, the Oneidas, and the Mohawks ; which last, as being 
nearest to their settlements, often gave, among the English, 
a name to the whole. Each of these five nations was divided 
into three clans, distinguished as the Bear, the Tortoise, and 
the Wolf. Their castles, rude forts, places of protection for 
the women, children, and old men, surrounded by fields of 
corn, beans, and squashes, the head-quarters of the several 
tribes, were situated on those waters of central New York, 
of which the names serve as memorials, and now almost the 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 61 

only ones, of their ancient possessors. Some slender rem- 
nants of tliis once-powerful confederacy still linger, however, 
on small reservations of their ancient territory. It was in 
courage, ferocity, and warlike enterprise, far more than in 
social institutions or the arts of peace, that the Iroquois sur- 
passed the tribes of Algonquin descent on their eastern, 
southern, and western borders. It was not against those 
tribes as Algonquin, that the Five Nations carried on war, 
for their hostility was directed with even greater fury against 
the Hurons and Wyandots, who dwelt along the St. Law- 
rence and north of Lake Ontario, and who spoke dialects of 
the same language with themselves. The early alliance of 
French with those tribes, had rendered the French colonists 
objects of implacable hate to the Five Nations. 

In vain, during a short interval of peace, strenuous 
efforts were made to establish a spiritual influence over these 
fierce warriors. Father Jogues, whose captivity had made 
him acquainted with the chiefs, having returned again to 
Canada, was sent among them as embassador and mission- 
ary — a dangerous service, in which he met the death he had 
formerly escaped. 

Supplied with fire-arms by the Dutch, and rendered thus 
more formidable than ever, the Iroquois renewed a war by 
which the missionaries and their converts were equally en- 
dangered. Daniel, the venerable father of the Huron mis- 
sion, perished in the midst of his flock, surprised and massacred 
by a Mohawk war-party. Brebeuf and Lallemand, taken pris- 
oners, were burned at the stake ; Gardier perished by the 
hatchets of the Iroquois ; Chabanel was lost in the woods. 
The Huron missions, by these renewed onslaughts, were 
completely broken up. The Hurons, Wyandots, and Ottawas, 
greatly reduced in numbers, were driven from their country, 
which became a hunting-ground for the Iroquois. Subse- 
quently the Hurons and Ottawas established themselves in 
the neighborhood of Mackinaw. Mohawk war-parties harass- 
ed the banks of the St. Lawrence. The unhappy colonists 
lived in daily dread of massacre. Quebec itself was not safe. 
This emergency caused a message to ask aid of New Eng- 
land, as mentioned in a former chapter, or, at least, a free 
passage for war-parties of the Eastern tribes under French 
influence in their march against the Mohawks — a message 



62 Historical and 

Borne by John Godefroy, one of the council of New France, 
and Dreuillettes, former explorer of the passage from Que- 
bec to the eastern coast, described in his commission as 
'preacher of the Gospel to savage nations.' But the Com- 
missioners for the United Colonies of New England listened 
with but a cold ear to the story of the martyrdom of the 
French missionaries and the sufferings of their Indian con- 
verts. No aid could be obtained in that quarter ; but, after 
two or three years of perpetual alarm, the Iroquois consented 
at last to a peace. 

From the earliest foothold obtained by the Jesuits among 
the French colonies on the north, they had been known as the 
instigators and fermenters of jealousies between their converts 
and the Puritan settlements of New England and New York. 
With the exception of their unvarying system of ' Reductions ' 
— as they are best termed in all countries, and meaning 
nothing more than absolute slavery, spiritually and financially, 
by which the rich proceeds of the free-trade were, in this case, 
to be monopolized into the treasury of the Order — there were 
no purposes in which these missionaries proved themselves so 
indefatigably consistent, as this of mortal enmity to the Prot- 
estants wherever they appeared. Not only was this per- 
petual cause of irritation felt in the savage carnage of the 
earlier partisan or guerrilla struggles of the weak colonies 
with the more northern Indian tribes, and recognized as the 
incessant source of mortal peril beside their hard-earned fire- 
sides — although their OAvn agency had been denied by the 
Jesuits — yet when the first intercolonial war (known as 
King William's war,) broke out, the colonists were at no loss 
to know who had been, and would continue to be, their most 
arch and deadly foes. They not only knew these crafty mis- 
sionaries to be such enemies, but struck at them now as such, 
in spite of the pretended sanctities of their calling and garb ; 
and that too, with the merciless and exterminating violence 
of a spirit of retribution fired by the memory of the thousand 
sneaking and incendiary wrongs which had been accumulating 
to their account, through so many years. Hildreth's straights 
forward account of the progress of this war, best illustrates 
the development so far. 

So soon as the declaration of war between France and 
bjngland became knoAvn in America, the Baron Castin easily 



EeVOLUTIONARY iNCIDEisrS. 63 

excited the Eastern Indians to renew their depredations. In 
these hostilities the tribes of New Hampshire were induced 
also to join. Those tribes had neither forgotteli nor forgiven 
the treachery of Waldron, at the conclusion of Philip's war, 
thirteen years before. Two Indian women, apparently friend- 
ly, sought and obtained a night's lodging at Waldron's gar- 
rison or fortified house at Dover. They rose at midnight, 
opened the doors, and admitted a party lying in wait for the 
purpose. Waldron, an old man of eighty, after a stout 
resistance, was made prisoner. Placed by his captors in an 
elbow-chair at the head of a table in the hall, he was taunted 
with the exclamation, 'Judge Indians now!' after which he 
was put to death with tortures. Twenty others were killed. 
Twenty-nine were carried off as prisoners. The village was 
burned. The fort at Pemaquid, the extreme eastern frontier, 
was soon after attacked by a party of Penobseots, resident in 
the neighborhood, instigated by the Jesuit Tliury, who lived 
among them as a missionary. The garrison, obliged to sur- 
render, was dismissed by the Indians, but the fort, which 
Andros had built, was destroyed. An attack upon Casco was 
repulsed by Churth, the famous partisan of Philip's war, sent 
from Massachusetts with two hundred and fifty men. But 
all the settlements further east were ravaged and broken up. 
In hopes to engage the formidable Mohawks as auxiliaries 
against these eastern tribes, commissioners from Boston pro- 
ceeded to Albany, then held by the members of the New 
York council opposed to Leisler. In a conference had there 
with some chiefs of the Five Nations, they expressed their 
determination to continue the war against Canada, but they 
could not be prevailed upon to lift the hatchet against their 
Indian brethren of the East. 

Eeduced to extreme distress by the late successful inroads 
of the Iroquois, Canada had just received relief by the arrival 
from France of Count Frontenac, re-commissioned as governor, 
and bringing with him such of the Indian prisoners sent to 
France as had survived the galleys, troops, supplies, and a 
scheme for the conquest and occupation of New York. As a part 
of this scheme, the Chevalier de la Coffiniere, who had accompa- 
nied Frontenac to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, proceeded to 
cruise off the coast of New England, making many prizes, 
and designing to attack New York by sea, while Frontenac 



64: . Historical and 

.assailed it on the land side. Frontenac, though sixty-eight 
years of age, had all the buoyancy and vigor of youth. He 
was a man of great energy and determination, and his 
former administration of the colony made him aware of the 
measures which the exigency demanded. The Iroquois had 
already retired from Montreal, and preparations were imme- 
diately made for relieving Fort Frontenac. These prepara- 
tions, however, were too late, for the garrison had already set 
fire to the fort, and retired down the river. Means were still 
found, however, to keep up the communication with Macki- 
naw. Not able to prosecute this scheme of conquest, Fron- 
tenac presently detached three war-parties, to visit on the 
English frontier those same miseries which Canada had so 
recently experienced at the hands of the Five Nations. 

In the course" of the last twenty years, a number of con- 
verted Mohawks, induced to retire from among their heathen 
brethren, had established themselves at the rapids of St. 
Louis, in a village known also as Cagnawaga, on the south bank 
.of the St Lawrence, nearly opposite Montreal. It was chiefly 
'these converted Mohawks, well acquainted with the settle- 
ments about Albany, who composed, with a number of 
Frenchmen, the first of Frontenac's war parties, amounting 
in the whole to a hundred and ten persons. Guided by the 
watercourses, whose frozen surface furnished tliem a path, 
they traversed a wooded wilderness covered with deep snows. 
(Jan. 1690.) Pressing stealthily forward in a single file, the 
foremost wore snow-shoes, and so beat a track for the rest. 
At night the snow was thrown up toward the side whence 
the wind came, and in the hollow thus scooped out the party 
slept on branches of pine, round a fire in the midst. A little 
parched corn served them for provisions, eked out by such 
game as they killed. After a twenty-two days' march, intent 
on their bloody purpose, they approached Schenectady, the 
object of their toil. This was a Dutch village on the Mo- 
hawk, then the outpost of the settlements about Albany. 
The cluster of some forty houses was protected by a palisade, 
but the gates were open and unguarded, and at midnight 
the inhabitants slept profoundly. The assailants entered in 
silence, divided themselves into several parties, and, giving 
the signal by the terrible war-whoop, commenced the attack. 
Shrieks of women and children answered. Doors were broken 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 65 

open ; houses set on fire ; blood flowed. Sixty were slain on 
the spot ; twenty -seven were taken prisoners ; the rest fled, 
half naked, along the road to Albany through a driving- 
snow-storm, a deep snow, and cold so bitter that many lost 
their limbs by frost. The assailants set off for Canada with 
their prisoners and their plunder, and effected their escape, 
though not without serious loss inflicted by some Mohawk 
warriors, who hastened to pursue them. The terror inspired 
by this attack was so great, that, for the sake of aid and 
support, the malcontents who held Albany, submitted to the 
hated Leisler. But nothing could prevail on that rash and 
passionate chief to use his authority with moderation. He 
confiscated the property of his principal opponents. Bayard 
and Nichols were held in confinement; and for the arrest 
of Livingston, warrants were sent to Boston and Hartford, 
whither he had fled for safety. 

Frontenac's second war party, composed of only fifty-two 
persons, departing from Three Eivers, a village half way 
from Montreal to Quebec, ascended the St. Francis, entered 
the valley of the Upper Connecticut, and thence made their 
way across the mountains and forests of New Hampshire. 
Presently they descended on Salmon Falls, a frontier village 
on the chief branch of the Piscataqua. (March 27, 1690.) 
They attacked it by surprise, killed most of the male in- 
habitants, plundered and burned the houses, and carried ofi' 
fifty-four prisoners, chiefly women and children, whom they 
drove before them, laden with the spoils. While thus re- 
turning, they fell in with the third war-party from Quebec, 
and, joining forces, proceeded to attack Casco. A part of the 
garrison was lured into an ambuscade and destroyed. The 
rest, seeing their palisades about to be set on fire, surrendered 
on terms as prisoners of war. (May.) 

Such was the new and frightful sort of warfare to whicli 
the English colonists were exposed. The savage ferocity of 
the Indians, guided by the sagacity and civilized skill an:! 
enterprise of French officers, became ten times more terrible. 
The influence which the French missionaries had acquired by 
persevering self-sacrifice and the highest efforts of Christian 
devotedness was now availed of, as too often happens, by men* 
worldly policy, to stimulate their converts to hostile inroads 
and midnight murders. Eeligious zeal sharpened the edge 
6* 



^^ Historical and 

of savage hate. The English were held up to the Indians 
not merely as enemies, but as heretics, upon whom it was a 
Christian duty to make war. If the chaplet of victory were 
missed, at least the crown of martyrdom was sure. 

These cruel Indian inroads seemed to the sufferers abun- 
dant confirmation of the tales of the Huguenots scattered 
through the colonies as the bloody and implacable spirit of 
the Catholic faith. These reliijious refugees were so numer- 
ous in Boston and New York, as to have in each of those 
towns a church of their own. Hatred of popery received a 
new impetus. It is hardly to be wondered at that the few 
Catholics of Maryland, though their fathers had been the 
founders of that colony, were disfranchised, and subjected to 
all the disabilities by which, in Britain and Ireland, the 
suppression of Catholicism was vainly attempted. Probably 
also to this period we may refer the act of Khode Island, of 
unknown date, which excluded Catholics from becoming free- 
men of that colonv. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Queen Ann's, or " Second IntercolonialWar " between " Sam " and the 
Order of Jesuits — The Order not quite ready for formidable operations 
in the South — Retrospective glance at acts and influences of the Catholic 
Priesthood in Mexico from the Conquest — Evidence of Clavigero the 
Catholic Historian of Mexico — The monstrous destruction of the archives 
of Historical Pictures in Yucatan by an " Ecclesiastic " — Destruction of 
the most precious Arts, which was common throughout Mexico. 

The last chapter may be well considered as settling the 
question of the participation and predominating influence of 
the Jesuit missionaries in the first intercolonial war, and ^s 
against the sorely beleaguered Protestant colonies of the 
north. As yet, their schemes of southern acquisition and 
supremacy in the South had not been consummated — their 
cordon of " Reductions " not sufliciently completed to make 
their active demonstrations in that quarter so formidable, as 
to render more detail on our own part necessary. The pur- 
pose of this history being rather to render clear the histori- 
cal relations of •' Sam" to his internal foes, than to enter 
systematically into more than the outline of others, which 
'llustrate rather the minuter pliascs of his own huge devel- 
opment, and his relations to avowed and outward enemies. 
It now becomes necessary that we should look somewhat to 
those Jesuit antecedents which led immediately to the next 
even more extended and exterminating war — the Queen 
Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial war " — between " Sam " and 
liis desperate foe — the Order of Jesus ! 

The moment the Jesuits found themselves comparatively 
secure of their foothold in Acadia, which might form for 

67 



68 Historical and 

them a rallying point upon tlie continent, then, with that 
skillful mixture of military law and spiritual despotism which 
has always constituted the phenomenon of their ascendency 
in the Christian world, they pushed forward their corpse-like 
trainhands of helpless devotees, in eager emulation for more 
extended explorations and " Eeductions," upon the wilderness 
fastnesses of the north-west, in search of the sources of cer- 
tain great traditionary outlets of the then boundless limits of 
the New World, which they meant to claim and assert as 
their own, since the old seemed passing so rapidly from 
their grasp. Gold as well as souls seemed always to have 
been most discreetly mingled with their aspirations for con- 
quest in America ; and the earliest delusions of gold in Aca- 
dia, which so rapidly gave way before the sterner facts of a 
bleak and inhospitable reality, had been kept alive by vague 
rumors of a mighty empire, drained by endless rivers flowing 
through sands of gold, which held their sources far in a mys- 
terious interior, and had fired anew immaculate ecstaticisms 
which look to their final realization in a " golden city," which, 
either in heaven or on earth was to constitute their reward. 
The prodigious results of the conquests of Cortez and the 
Pizarros had not wanted of circulation through the right 
hands — but then, although tlie holy Order of Jesus had not 
been organized, its founders had not failed to participate in, 
and comprehend the benefits of, such acquisitions — indeed, it 
had been during the immediate ferment of European mind, 
caused by the introduction of this new and mighty element, 
that the crafty and sagacious intellect of Loyola projected 
this late and most fatal organization on this the sole predomi- 
nating idea of Jesuitism — though the enmity to Protestant- 
ism was the next of course, as he saw in it tlie mortal 
antagonism of spiritual despotism ! 

That these apparently unselfish enterprises of the early Jes 
uits should have proceeded from such causes, why need we stop 
to argue ? But it may be well that we should give a few pre- 
liminary facts as illustrating, here and there, the condition 
in which the early catholic conquest left Old and New Mexico. 
First, as showing in how much the Catholic Church proper 
has conserved to the preservation of the ancient literature and 
arts of all countries which have been conquered by Catholic 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 69 

arms. This event we now quote, occurred during the reign 
of Charles V, of Spain, when as the dominant power of 
Europe, he could afford to wao'c single-handed war against 
the rest of the workl — when Cortcz was sending him the 
ravished treasures of the New World, and completing the 
conquest of the whole Mexican empire — when his steel-clad 
cohorts were led by tonsiled priests hearing the holy cross and 
every new scene of rapine and massacre was only consecrated 
by the Catholic Priests. One of their own number, Clavigero, 
in a formal histoiy of the early Mexican Empire and con- 
quest by his own friends, is compelled to relate as follows, in 
his zeal as an antiquarian, concerning one incident of the con- 
quest of Yucatan : 

Though games, dances, and music, conduced less to utility 
than pleasure, this was not the case with History and Paint- 
ing ; two arts which ought not to bo separated in the history 
of Mexico, as they had no other historians than their paint- 
ers, nor any other writings than their paintings to commemo- 
rate the events of the nation. 

The Toltecas were the first people of the New World who 
employed the art of painting for the ends of history ; at least 
we know of no other nation which did so before them. The 
same practice prevailed, from time immemorial, among the 
Acolhuas, the seven Aztecau tribes, and among all the pol- 
ished nations of Auahuac. The Chechemecas and the Otomies 
were taught it by the Acolhuas and the Toltecas, when they 
deserted their savage life. 

Among the paintings of the Mexicans, and all those 
nations, there were many which were mere portraits or images 
of their gods, their kings, their heroes, their animals, and 
their plants. With these the royal palaces of Mexico and 
Tezcuco both abounded. Others were historical, containing 
an account of particular events, such as are the first thirteen 
paintings of the collection of Mendoza, and that of the jour- 
ney of the Aztecas, which appears in the work of the trav- 
eler Gemelli. Others were mythological, containing the 
mysteries of their religion. Of this kind is the volume whicli 
is preserved in the great library of the Order of Bologna. 
Others were codes, in which were compiled their laws, their 
rites, their customs, their taxes,, or tributes ; and such are all 
those of the above mentioned collection of Mendoza, from the 



70 Historical and 

fourteenth to the sixty-third. Others were chronologic<il, 
astronomical, or astrological, in which was represented their 
calendar, the position of the stars, the changes of the moon, 
eclipses, and prognostications of the variations of the weather. 
This kind of painting was called by them Tonalamatl. Si- 
guenza makes mention" of a painting representing such like 
prognostications which he inserted in his Ciclographia Mexi- 
cana. Acosta relates ' that in the province of Yucatan, there 
were certain volumes, hound up according to their manner, 
in which the wise Indians had marked the distribution of 
their seasons, the knowledge of the planets, of animals, and 
other natural productions, and also their antiquity ; things all 
highly curious and minutely described;' which, as the same 
author says, were lost by the indiscreet zeal of an ecclesiastic, 
who, imagining them to be full of superstitious meanings, 
burned them, to the great grief of the Indians, and the 
utmost regret of the curious among the Spaniards. Other 
paintings were topographical, or chorograpliical, which served 
not only to show the extent and boundaries of possessions, 
but likewise the situation of places, the direction of the coasts, 
and the course of rivers. Cortez says, in his first letter to 
Charles V, that having made inquiries to know if there was 
any secure harbor for vessels in the Mexican gulf, Monte- 
zuma presented him a painting of the whole coast, from the 
port of ChalcMuheuecan, where at present Vera Cruz lies, to 
the river Coatzacualco. Bernal Diaz relates that Cortez also, 
in a long and difficult voyage which he made to the Bay of 
Honduras, made use of a chart wliieh was presented to him 
by the lords of Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers 
were marked from the coast of Coatzacualco to Hueja- 
callan. 

The Mexican empire abounded with all those kinds of 
paintings ; for their painters were innumerable, and there 
was hardly anything loft unpainted. If those had been pre- 
served, there would have been nothing wanting to the history 
of Mexico ; but the first preachers of the gospel, suspicious 
that superstition was mixed with all their paintings, made a 
furious destruction of them. Of all those which were to be 
found in Tezcuco, where the chief school of painting was, they 

* In his work entitled, Libra Astronomica, printed in Mexico. 



EEVOLUTIONARY iNCIDENTts. 71 

collected such a mass, in the square of the market, it appeared 
like a little mountain ; to this they set fire and buried in the 
ashes the memory of many most interesting and curious 
events. The loss of those monuments of antiquity was inex- 
pressibly afflicting to the Indians, and regretted sufficiently 
afterward by the authors of it, when they became sensible 
of their error ; for they were compelled to endeavor to remedy 
the evil, in the first place, by obtaining information from the 
mouths of the Indians ; secondly, by collecting all the paint- 
ings which had escaped their fury, to illustrate the history 
of the nation ; but although they recovered many, these were 
not sufficient ; for from that time forward, the possessors of 
paintings became so jealous of their preservation and conceal- 
Qient from the Spaniards, it has proved difficult, if not im- 
possible to make them part with one of them. '■' 

" The History of Mexico ; Collected from Spanish and Mexican Historians, 
from Manuscripts and ancient Paintings of the Indians, together with the 
Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards ; Hlustrated by Engravings, with 
Critical Dissertations on the Land, Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico. 
By Abbe D. Francesco Saverio Clavigero. Translated from the original 
Italian, by Charles Cullen, Esq. In three volumes. Vol. ii. 



CHAPTER X. 

Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico — Anti- 
quarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico — Con- 
quest of California — Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious gold 
region by the Catholic governors of California — Extermination of the 
Catholic Spaniards of the Conquestador-Occupation — Hidden ruins and 
strange Traditions — Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities — Marvelous 
treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma. 

Clavigero's account of tlie destructive proclivities of the 
Catholic priests who accompanied the Conquestadors under 
Cortez, to the dismemberment and annihilation of the nation- 
alities of the Mexican empire, does not cover the whole 
ground of complaint with which universal history teems 
against these rare conservators of the literature and science 
of the world. Nor was it to Old Mexico proper, that these 
yandalish ravages of savage intolerance were confined. We 
sliall turn to New Mexico, which is nearer home, for the 
examples of exterminating bigotry, which surpass in enor- 
mity the wrongs of even the old empire. 

The gold-craving white man seems to have been destined, 
according to the ancient faith of the natives of Mexico, to be 
its scourge and conqueror.'-'' 

Cortez found Mexico half conquered for him by an old 
tradition. It was taught in their temples, and believed by 
the whole Indian population, that a race of white men was to 
come from the east to rule the natives of the land. The 
apparition of a band of fair-complexioned men clothed in 
arrow-proof garments of steel, and armed with the death- 
dealing firebolts of heaven, sealed the truth of this imme- 
morial prediction to the awe-struck Mexicans, and they bowed 
in the helpless submission of their superstitious fears, to the 
wonderful strangers. However this belief originated, it is 

*■' See Appendix, for curious note. 

72 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 73' 

singular that it should have preceded the approach of the 
white man on every part of America, and that its active 
effect should to this day, fortify the unexplored gold region 
against his advance within its limits. 

Perhaps this land, in which are, unquestionably, existent 
edifices of Aztec construction, and which still hears the name 
of Montezuma pronounced with reverence, may have been the 
cradle of the proud conquerors who swept the Mexican plateau, 
and planted there the golden empire which Cortez overthrew. 
If so, in this, their last unsubdued stronghold, the light and 
liberality of American enterprise may yet discover the final 
dwelling-place of their history and religion, and that will be 
of more worth than their glittering ores. 

There is a curious Indian superstition, familiar to most of 
the early Texan borderers, often told in connection with the 
sad prophecy of tlie extinction of the red race under the 
breath of white civilization. The Indians affirm that the 
honey-bee always goes before the white settler to warn the 
red-man to retire and yield up his hunting-grounds to the 
dominion of the ax and plow. In 1820, the Indians say, the 
first bees made their appearance on the Brazos and Colorado 
rivers, in Texas, and five years after, Austin's settlement 
arose on their banks and rendered the Indians thenceforth, 
aliens and intruders on their native soil. 

Before the invasion of Mexico by the Spaniards, there was 
no mining science in the country, and the gold, which greatly 
outbalanced the silver in quantity, was simply gathered from 
or near the surface of the ground, and mostly brought by 
porters from great distances in the interior of the country. 
The preponderance of gold before, and of silver since the 
Conquest, is readily explained by the introduction of a more 
elaborate and thorough mining system. Silver is rarely 
found in a pure, unmixed state on the surface, and could 
only be produced, in large quantities, by the cruel and scien- 
tific despotism of Spain. The skill, implements, and experi- 
ence of European art, and the human force of thousands 
upon thousands of the native population, were turned into 
the mines, and then the ore was pursued into the bowels of 
the earth by the conquerors ; and numberless silver-mines, 
that lay untouched and useless Under the simple Aztec rule, 
became immensely productive under the Spaniards. Gold 



74 Historical and 

mines were seldom worked when found ; and those distant 
ones, from which the native princes gathered a ready harvest, 
independent of science, and without penetrating the earth, 
are now lost in obscurity. In the reckless annihilation of 
the native priesthood, and the sweeping destruction of their 
records, the Catholics buried much valuable lore. As if 
their murdered faith had, in its last death-agony, pressed the 
signet of forgetfulness on the lips of its desolate and aban- 
doned children, the most beautiful of their arts, and the 
most coveted of tlieir gifts passed away from the native Mex- 
icans in a single veneration. It seemed to be with them a 
religious and patriotic duty to extinguish every light that 
could serve their hard taskmasters. Art has lost their 
exquisite colors for painting, their gorgeous feather-work, 
their adamantine-tempered copper ; and science misses their 
historic records and their astronomical calculations, while 
avarice mourns the lost secret of their mines of emeralds, 
amethysts, and rich beds of gold. 

For the first two centuries after the conquest by Cortez, 
the Indian population maintained a stern and desperate 
silence on the subj ect of gold. It was rare that either bribes 
or tortures could induce an Indian to admit that he knew 
where any could be found, and thus those mines in the more 
remote provinces fell into immediate oblivion. The vague 
and traditionary evidences of their existence, were not incen- 
tives enough to warrant the toil and danger of exploration 
and conquest, while those at home, in the midst of a subdued 
serf-population, gave such prompt and liberal returns. 

Some may suppose that the chaos and oppression of the 
Spanish Conquest could not so utterly extinguish the knowl- 
edge of excessively rich mines, as to prevent their avaricious 
conquerors from bringing them to use, liowever remote their 
situation ; but to this may be opposed the undeniable fact, 
that the locality of the emerald mines is absolutely lost, 
though their existence somewhere is as positively a matter 
of record as any event of the Conquest. The same destroy- 
ing power that swept away the temples, the religion, the 
social customs, the national records, and even the language 
and history of the.conquered race in one overwhelming wave, 
annihilated, also, much kndi;\'ledge that would have been 
acceptable from its own interest. 



Eevolutionary Tncidexts. 75 

Light enough, and temptation enough, remained however, 
to urge the Spaniards to attempt the subjugation of the Cali- 
fornia basin ; but all that we know certainly of their expedition 
is, their unsatisfactory results, and the shadowy reports brought 
back by the survivors, of well-built cities in the interior, and 
treasures of gold in the encircling mountains of the uncon- 
querable country. On the San Saba, as well as on the Pecos, 
there is unquestionably, vast mineral wealth, formerly not 
unknown to the Mexicans, but which nothing but the firm, 
stable protection of our government, and the enterprising 
audacity of our citizens, can liope to wrest from the supersti- 
tious control of the Indians. 

The wide expanse of country above the Kio Gila, and be- 
tween that river and the Rio Colorado, as also the territory 
next beyond the mountains to the eastward, embracing the 
valley of the Eio Grande, and that of the Pecos, early at- 
tracted the attention of the Spaniards. No sooner had they 
subdued the Aztecs and their dependencies, than they turned 
their armed enterprises northward, toward the regions just 
indicated, and concerning the mineral riches of which, they 
had received, from their first landing in Mexico, many vague 
but glowing accounts. The history and results of their en- 
terprises may be thus rapidly summed up. 

No sooner had the general subjugation of Mexico and its 
immediate dependencies been completed, and its provinces 
partitioned among the Spanish leaders, than the attention 
of the latter was directed to the unknown region beyond 
them, and of the relics and magnificence of which they often 
received the most exaggerated accounts. Nuno de Guzman, 
to whom had been assigned the governorship of New Gallicia, 
comprising the northern division of Mexico, heard many of 
their accounts, relating to the countries northward of his 
jurisdiction, which excited his curiosity and influenced his 
avarice. He had in his service a Tejos (Taos ?) Indian, who 
told him of a vast northern country, abounding in gold and 
silver. Confiding in his accounts, Guzman collected an army, 
and in 1530, in less than ten years after Cortez entered the 
valley of Anahuac, started for this unknown region. Difii- 
eulties intervened, and the death of his Indian guide induced 
him to abandon his enterprise, although entertaining implicit 
faith in the reports tliat had reached him. 



76 Historical and 

The accounts of Cabeca de Vaca, who penetrated from the 
■coast of Florida to the Pacific, and who, six years after the 
abandonment of Guzman's expedition, succeeded in reaching 
the city of Mexico, revived the waning excitement in respect 
to the rich mineral region of the north. Although he could 
■convey no personal information on the subject, he had satis- 
fied himself of the existence of a semi-civilized people in 
that direction, and had received from the Indians accounts 
of its riches, coinciding with those of the Taos Indian already 
named. 

Vasquez Coronado, who had succeeded Guzman in the 
governorship of New Gallicia, immediately took measures to 
ascertain the truth of these reports. He dispatched north- 
ward, with instructions to penetrate to these regions, a monk 
named Niza, who penetrated as far as the Gila, when, fright- 
ened by the prospect before him, he returned to Coronado, 
bringing him a long account of his adventures, partly true, 
but for the most part, as was afterward discovered, fabulous. 
He professed to have discovered, northward of the Gila, large 
and populous cities, surpassing Mexico in size, splendor and 
wealth. He represented the people to be possessed of great 
abundance of gold, and that their commonest vessels, and the 
walls of their temples were covered with that precious metal. 
Upon the authority of " a man born in the principal city of 
Cibola" — the name given to the northern El Dorado — "the 
houses were built of lime and stone, the gates and small 
pillars of turquoises, and all the vessels aiid ornaments of 
the houses were made of gold." Other equally extravagant 
statements were obtained from other sources, as we perceive 
in the subjoined extracts, from a letter written by Coronado 
to the viceroy, Mendoza, bearing date March 8, 1539. 

" In the province of Topira there are no great cities, but 
the houses are built of stone, and are very good; and within 
them the people have great stores of gold, which is, as it were, 
lost, because they know not what use to put it to. They 
wear emeralds and other precious jewels upon their breasts, 
are valiant, and have very strong armor made of silver, 
fashioned after the shapes of beasts. Beyond Topira there 
is still another country, the people whereof wear on their 
bodies gold, emeralds, and other precious stones, and are 
.:-ommonly served in gold and silver, wherewith they cover 



Kevolutioxaey Incidents. 77 

their houses ; and the chief men wear great chains of gold, 
well wroui^lit, about their necks, and arc appareled with 
painted garments, and have a great store of wild kine." 

At this time a sea expedition on the Pacific was undertaken 
by UUoa, under the direction of Cortez, which had for its 
object not less the discovery of the golden region of the 
north, than the exploration of the coast. We have no room 
to trace its progress. Suffice to say, it returned with no 
tangible evidence of the wealth which it was expected to 
discover. 

Cortez, who faifcied he saw another Mexico in the golden 
country of the north, which was now the subject of conversa- 
tion on every tongue, was eager to add its conquest to his 
already high renown. And when, in 1540, it was resolved 
to send northward a land expedition to explore the country, 
the right of command was contested between Cortez, as Cap- 
tain-General of New Spain, and Mendoza, as Viceroy of 
Mexico. The latter was successful, and Cortez, disappointed 
and disgusted, returned to Spain. 

The command of the expedition was given to Coronade, 
who set out, with a large party of armed followers, early in 
the year 1540. After a protracted journey he reached the 
Eio Gila, then called the Nexpa, and boldly ventured upon 
the rugged and broken country beyond it, toward the north. 
After many days' travel, in which he encountered innumer- 
able obstacles and incredible hardships, he reached the valley 
of a stream flowing westward, and which recent discoveries 
have shown probably to have been the Rio Salinas, the princi- 
pal northern tributary of the Gila. Here he found the cities 
of Cibola. The delusion was then dispelled. Instead of 
cities glittering with gold, he found a people living in con- 
siderable towns, cultivating the soil, and furnishing striking 
contrasts, in their simplicity, to the splendor which the con- 
querors had encountered in Mexico and Peru. They were 
not, however, ignorant of the precious metals ; on the con- 
trary, Coronado, whose ardor was already effectually cooled, 
expressly states that he "here found some quantity of gold 
and silver, which those skilled in minerals esteem to be very 
good. To this hour," he adds, with evident regret, " I can 
not learn of this people where they obtain it, and I see they 
refuse to tell me the truth, imagining that in a short time 



78' Historical and 

I will depart hence. I hope in God^ concludes the devout 
commander, '• they shall no longer excuse themselves /" The 
natives, nevertheless, succeeded in excusing themselves, and 
upon their representations Coronado was induced to cross the 
mountains to the eastward, into the valley of the Eio Grande, 
where he was further amused with accounts of a mysterious 
city called Quivera." Here, it was said, ruled " a king 
whose name was Tatratax, with a long beard, hoary-headed, 
and rich, who worshiped a cross of gold, and the image of 
a woman, which was the queen of heaven." " This news," 
says Gomara, " did greatly rejoice and cheer up the army, 
although some thought it false, and the report of the friars." 
The golden Quivera, however, retreated like a phantom be- 
fore the disappointed and impatient Spaniards. The natives, 
anxious only to rid themselves of the hated presence of the 
invaders, responded to every inquiry by pointing to the north- 
eastward, in which direction Coronado moved with his army. 
Instead of the long-sought Quivera, he found only the high, 
broad and desert plains of the great buffalo range, traversed 
by the roving Arapahoes and hostile Pawnees, and after 
wandering long in this inhospitable region, he returned 
completely dispirited to the Eio Grande, and speedily retraced 
his steps to Mexico. 

It is worthy of mention that, while at Tucayan, a short 
distance to the northward of Cibola, the towns of which still 
exist, about one hundred and fifty miles to the westward of 
Santa F^, on some of the northern tributaries of the Gila, 
he obtained an account of a great river to the north-west 
(undoubtedly the Colorado,) beyond which were mines of gold 
and great treasure. Thither he dispatched an officer, Lopez 
de Cardenas, with twelve men, who penetrated to the Color- 
ado, but finding the country barren and uninviting, and the 
weather cold, he returned to Cibola without making any dis- 
c<3veries of interest. 

The unfortunate results of Coronado's expedition had the 
effect to discourage all similar enterprises in the same quar- 
ter. Nevertheless, forty years thereafter, in 1586, Antonio 
de Espejo, animated by the accounts of a Franciscan monk 
named liuiz, set out from the mines of San Barbara in 

* This fabulous city is not the " Gran Quivera " of the valley of the Pecos 



Revolutionary Incidents. 79 

Mexico, for the rich regions which he was assured existed far 
to the north-west. He went through the valley of the Rio 
Grande, where he found numerous traces of mineral wealth, 
and finally reached the towns of the Cihola. He here heard 
repeated the stories that had heen told to Coronada, which, 
however, he relates in more distinct terms. He was told hy 
the natives that ^^ sixty days' journey to the north-west was a 
very mighty lake, upon the hanks of which stood many great 
and good towns, and that the inhabitants of the same had 
plenty of gold," etc. He determined to proceed thither, but 
after going thirty leagues, he came to the towns of the 
Moqui, when, deserted by his followers, he was obliged to 
relinquish his design. He, nevertheless, " learned much of 
the great lake aforesaid," the reports agreeing fully with 
what he had before heard of the great abundance of gold in 
the vicinity of the lake. 

It is eminently worthy of remark, that before returning, he 
visited ^^ certain very rich mines" in the vicinity of the Moqui, 
(say two hundretl and fifty miles west of Santa Fe) from 
which he assures us he took with his own hands, '■'■exceedingly 
rich metals holding great quantities of silver." These metals, 
he adds further, are found in broad and accessible veins. 

It seems certain, both from the accounts of Corbnado and 
Espejo, who alone have ever penetrated this northern country, 
that the natives had gold in their possession. It can not be 
supposed that it was obtained from so remote a deposit as that 
on the Sacramento; and the inference that it was found in 
their own vicinity, near the shores of the golden-sanded lake, 
to which their accounts refer, is sustained by tlie direct state- 
ments of Espejo, quoted above. 

In this connection it may be mentioned, that immediately 
southward from the country of the Cabela, described by Coro- 
nado, and near the point where he probably crossed the Gila, 
the little river Prierte comes down from betAveen the high 
mountains of the north. Concerning this stream. Col. Emor}^ 
says, in his recent report of the march of the army of the 
west through the valley of the Gila — " As the story goes, the 
Prierte flows down from the mountains burnished with gold. 
Its sands are said to be full of the precious metal. A few ad- 
venturers, who ascended the river, hunting beaver, washed the 
sands at night, where they halted, and were richly rewarded 



80 HiSTOKICAL AND 

for their trouble. Tempted by tbeir success, they made a 
second trip, but were attacked and most of them killed by 
the Indians. My authority for this statement is Londeau, who, 
though illiterate, is truthful." It is well known that there 
are gold mines about one hundred and fifty miles to the east- 
ward of tliis point, which have been, and still are, worked 
with considerable success. 

The mention made by Espejo and other early writers, of 
mines and mineral Avealth in the upper half of the valley of 
the Eio Grande, and probably in the valley of the Pecos river, 
has been confirmed by later authorities, v.dioso accounts have 
superseded those of an earlier date. A number of mines are 
now worked in the valley, and from what is now known of the 
mineral productiveness of the Pacific slope, it is reasonable to 
conclude that the intervening country is equally rich in the 
precious metals. Indeed, from the geological features of the 
country, it can hardly be otherwise.'-' 

The rapid sketches we have so far furnished, cover much 
of the earlier historical aspects of this period, drawn from 
strictly antiquarian researches ; we will now proceed to give 
from more modern authorities, later views of our subject. 
Gregg, the intelligent and agreeable Santa Fd and New 
Mexican traveler, devotes an interesting chapter to this sub- 
ject in his book " Commerce of America." He says : 

*' Tradition speaks of numerous and productive mines hav- 
ing been in operation in New Mexico before the expulsion of 
the Spaniards in 1680 ; but that the Indians, seeing that the 
cupidity of the conquerors had been the cause of their former 
cruel oppressions, determined to conceal all the mines by fill- 
ing them up, and obliterating as much as possible every trace 
of them. This was done so effectually, as is tuld, that after 
the second conquest, (the Spaniards in the meantime not hav- 
ing turned their attention to mining pursuits for a series of 
years,) succeeding generations were never able to discover 
them again. Indeed, it is now generally credited by the 
Spanish population, that the Pueblo Indians, up to the pres- 
ent day, are acquainted with the locales of a great number of 
these wonderful mines, of which they most sedulously preserve 

* The Author of Sam is indebted for much of the above narrative, to the 
researches of E. G. Squire, the antiquarian . 



Revolutionary Incidents. 81 

the secret. Rumor further asserts that the oU men and 
sages of the Pueblos periodically lecture the youths on this 
subject, warning them against discovering the mines to the 
Spaniards, lest the cruelties of the original conquest be re- 
newed toward them, and they be forced to toil and suffer in 
those mines as in days of yore. To the more effectual pres- 
ervation of secrecy, it is also stated tliat they have called in 
the aid of superstition, by promulgating the belief that the 
Indian who reveals the location of these hidden treasures will 
surely perish by the wrath of their gods. 

Playing upou the credulity of the people, it sometimes 
liappens that a roguish Indian will amuse himself at the 
expense of his reputed superiors in intelligence, by proffering 
to disclose some of these concealed treasures. I once knew a 
waggish savage of this kind to propose to show a valley where 
virgin gold could be "scraped up by the basket-full." On a 
bright Sunday morning, the time appointed for the expedi- 
tion, the chuckling Indian set out with a train of Mexicans 
at his heels, provided with mules and horses, and a large 
quantity of meal-bags to carry in the golden stores ; but as 
the shades of evening were closing around the party, he dis- 
covered — that he couldn't find the place. 

It is not at all probable, however, that the aborigines 
possess a tenth part of the knowledge of these ancient foun- 
tains of wealth, that is generally attributed to them ; but that 
many valuable mines ivere once wi'ought in this province, not 
only tradition but authenticated records and existing relics 
sufficiently prove. In every quarter of the territory there 
are still to be seen vestiges of ancient excavations, and in 
some places, ruins of considerable towns evidently reared for 
mining purposes. 

Among these ancient ruins the most remarkable are 
those of La Gran Quivira, about one hundred miles southward 
of Santa Fe. This appears to have been a considerable city, 
larger and richer by far than the present capital of New 
Mexico has ever been. Many walls, particularly those of 
churches, still stand erect amid the desolation that surrounds 
them, as if tlieir sacredness had been a shield against which 
Time dealt his blows in vain. The style of arcliitecture is 
altogether superior to anything at present to be found north 
of Chihuahua — being of hewn stone, a building material 



82 ' Historical and 

wholly unused in New Mexico. What is more extraordinary 
still, is, that there is no water within less than some ten miles 
of the ruins ; yet we find several stone cisterns, and remains 
of aqueducts eight or ten miles in length, leading from the 
neighboring mountains, from whence water was no doubt con- 
veyed. And, as there seem to be no indications whatever of 
the inhabitants ever having been engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, what could have induced the rearing of a city in 
such an arid, woodless plain as this, except the proximity of 
some valuable mine, it is difficult to imagine. From the 
peculiar character of the place and the remains of the cisterns 
still existing, the object of pursuit in this case would seem to 
have been a placer, a name applied to mines of gold-dust inter- 
mixed with the earth. However, other mines have no doubt 
been worked in the adjacent mountains, as many spacious 
pits are found, such as are usually dug in pursuit of ores of 
silver, etc.; and it is stated that in several places heaps of 
scoria are still to be seen. 

By some persons these ruins have been supposed to be the 
remains of an ancient Pueblo or aboriginal city. That is not 
probable, however ; for though the relics of aboriginal temples 
might possibly be mistaken for those of Catholic churches, yet 
it is not to be presumed that the Spanish coat-of-arms would 
be found sculptured and painted upon their facades, as is tlie 
case in more than one instance. The most rational accounts 
represent this to have been a wealthy Spanish city before the 
general massacre of 1680, in which calamity the inhabitants 
perished — all except one, as the story goes ; and that their 
immense treasures were buried in the ruins. Some credu- 
lous adventurers have lately visited the spot in search of 
these long-lost coffers, but as yet none have been found.''* 

The mines of Cerrillos, twenty miles southward of Santa 
F^, although of undoubted antiquity, liave, to all appearance, 
been worked to some extent within the present century; indeed, 
they have been reopened within the recollection of the present 
generation ; but the enterprise having been attended with 
little success, it was again abandoned. Among numerous 
pit^ still to be seen at this place, there is one of immense 

■■* In the same vicinity there are some other ruins of a similar charactei-, 
though less extensive; the principal of which are those of Abo, Tagique, 
CUilili. The last of these is now being resettled by the Mexicans. 



Revolutioxary Ixcidexts. 83 

depth cut tlirougli solid rock, wliich. it is believed, could not 
have cost less than ^100,000. In the mountains of Sandia, 
Abiquiti, and more particularly in those of Picuris and Em- 
budo, there are also numerous excavations of considerable 
depth. A few years ago, an enterprising American under- 
took to reopen one of those near Picuris ; but after having 
penetrated to the depth of more than a hundred feet, without 
reaching the bottom of the original excavation, (which had 
probably been filling up for the last hundred and fifty years,) 
he gave it up for want of means. Other attempts have since 
been made, but with as little success. Whether these fail- 
ures have been caused by want of capital and energy, or 
whether the veins of ore were exhausted by the original 
miners, remains for future enterprise to determine. 

I should premise, before further reference to authorities, 
that the ruins of the iliree cities, so evidently built by the 
Indians, under the direction of the Spaniards, or rather of 
Spanish priests, are all met with in the valley of the Pecos, 
at no very great distance apart. They are Abio, Quarra, 
and Quivira. It is the ruins of Quarra which Major Abert, 
of the United States Commission Survey, was, at the time of 
this report we proceed to quote, now visiting. He says : 

I now bade adieu to my generous entertainers, and with 
thousands of extravagant compliments from the kind people, 
I set out to overtake the party. After traveling southeast 
for six miles, I reached the ancient village of 'Quarra.' 
Here there is yet standing the walls of a time-worn cathe- 
dral ; it is composed entirely of stone — red sandstone ; the 
pieces are not more than two inches thick. The walls are two 
feet wide, and the outer face dressed off to a perfectly plain 
surface. The ground-plan presents the form of a cross, with 
rectangular projections in each of the angles. The short 
arm of the cross is thirty-three feet two inches wide ; the long 
arm is eighteen feet nine inches Avide ; their axes are, respect- 
ively, fifty feet and one hundred and twelve feet long, and their 
intersection is thirty feet from the head of the cross. The rect- 
angular projections, that partly fill the angles formed by the 
arms, are six feet square. At the foot of the cross are rectan- 
gular projections, that measure ten feet in the direction of the 
\)\\<y axis, and six feet in the other direction. 



84 Historical axd 

Around the church are the less conspicuous remains of 
numerous houses that had been built of the same material, 
and the surfaces of the walls finished with tools ; but these 
houses are almost level with the earth, while the walls of the 
ancient church rise to a hight of sixty feet. 

While making my measurements, assisted by one of the 
men who had remained with me, a Mexican came up to me 
and said, in the most mysterious way, ' I know something of 
great moment, and want to speak to you — to you alone ; no 
one must be near ; come with me to my house.' I went ; but 
when we arrived there, we found an old ruin fitted up with 
such modern additions as was necessary to render it habitable. 
Here were several women. I sat some time, talking of in- 
different matters, waiting anxiously the important secret ; 
but my friend did not like the presence of the women, and 
would not tell me then ; so I got ready to re-commence my 
journey, while he endeavored, in a thousand ways to detain 
me. I asked him some questions about the geography of the 
country, and about _the famous place called ' Gran Quivera.' 
He told me that it was exactly like the buildings of Quarra, 
thus confirming exactly what I had learned at Manzano. 

I now signified my determination to proceed, when this- 
man seemed extremely anxious about my going, and at last 
told me that he would meet me in a cedar grove, some dis- 
tance in my route. In a little while I reached the grove, 
and saw him there. He then told me that he had discovered 
the greatest mine in the country, where there was an abun- 
dance of gold and silver. I asked him why he did not go 
and get it? '0,' said he, 'you can not have been long in 
this country not to know that we poor people can keep 
nothing ; the Eicos would seize all, but with your protection 
I would be secure in my labors.' Then he added, ' I '11 give 
you my name, write it down, it is Jose Lucero, of Quarra ; 
you can inquire in the villages through which you pass, they 
will tell you that I am honest.' I took down Jose Lucero's 
name, and proceeded on in my journey, so that if any one 
wishes, they can go and seek the gold of Quarra. 

It is the impression of all intelligent explorers, who have 
seen any one of the ruins mentioned, that from the geologi- 
cal character of the country surrounding them, their existence 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 85 

«an only be accounted for, upon the supposition that they were 
built for mining purposes, and that since the entire extermi- 
nation of their Spanish tyrants and taskmasters by the In- 
dians in the first great rising of 1680 — they have kept the 
secret of these mines concealed for the reasons given by 
Gregg, and frequently repeated by myself. The significant 
question : — " Why these long aqueducts, bringing water from 
great distances to cities in the midst of arid plains, when but 
a short distance south-east, or west, would have given the 
<^ity-builders, pleasant, beautiful, and well-watered sites ? " — 
lias no other reasonable answer that I can perceive. The 
ignorant frontiers-men and savages of Texas had never 
heard the names of Quarra or Quivira, yet they clearly 
pointed them out, in connection with this very neighborhood 
of rich mines. 

Dr. Wislizenus, in his report, says : Not ftir from these Sa- 
linas the ruins of an old city are found, the fabulous ' la Gran 
Quivira.^ The common report in relation to this place is, 
that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, 
with very rich mines, the produce of which was once or twice 
a year sent to Spain. At one season, when they were making 
extraordinary preparations for the transporting the precious 
metals, the Indians attacked them, whereupon the miners 
buried their treasures, worth fifty millions, and left the city 
together; but they were all killed except two, who went to 
Mexico, giving the particulars of the afl'air and soliciting aid 
to return. But the distance being so great and the Indians 
so numerous, nobody would advance, and the thing was drop- 
ped. One of the two wont to New Orleans, then under the 
dominion of Spain, raised five hundred men, and started by 
way of the Sabine, but was never heard of afterward. So 
far the report. Within the last few years, several Americans 
and Frenchmen have visited the place ; and, although they 
bave not found the treasure, they certify at least to the ex- 
istence of an aqueduct, about ten miles in length, to the still 
standing walls of several churches, the sculptures of the 
Spanish coat of arms, and to many spacious pits, supposed to 
be silver-mines. It was, no doubt, a Spanish mining town, 
and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in 1680, in the 
general successful insurrection of the Indians in New Mexico , 
against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel G. Morton, in a late 



• 86 Historical and 

pamphlet, suggests the probability that it was origiually an 
old Indian city, into which the Spaniards, as in several other 
instances, had intruded themselves, and subsequently aban- 
doned it. Further investigation, it is to be hoped, will clear 
up this point. 

Here are decidedly too many coincidences to be purely acci- 
dental and meaningless ! Prescott mentions the fact that the 
quantities of gold found in the possession of the Mexicans 
by Cortez, are by no means accounted for, in the probable or 
even possible productiveness of any of the known mines of 
Mexico at the present day. How, then, is this great wealth 
to be accounted for ? We think we have shown. It came, 
mostly, from New IMexico and the mysterious regions of the- 
Gila and Colorado ; and since this massacre of the Spaniards 
by the first, and the utter baffling of their search by the 
latter, these mines have been as a sealed book. But it will 
no longer continue to be sealed, \vhen American enterprise 
shall have passed over these buried treasures. 

But hear what is said by yet other historians, of the seem- 
ingly incalculable quantities of gold obtained by the Spanish 
conquest of Old and New Mexico, and no reader can her at 
a loss to account for the European prosperity and predominat- 
ing insolence of the Catholic Church of this period, any more 
than he will find the insatiable cravings of the earlier Jesuit 
missionaries on the north, a difficult riddle to solve. 

We shall merely quote a single passage from Prescott, the 
historian of the Conquest, in confirmation of the above, and 
conclude this branch of our sulyect. 

In a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back 
large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stufts, and the 
various commodities in which the taxes were usually paid. 

To this store Montezuma added, on his own account, the 
treasure of Axayacatl, previously noticed, some parts of which 
had been already given to the Spaniards. It was the fruit 
of long and careful hoarding — of extortion, it may be — by a 
prince wlio little dreamed of its final destination. When 
brought into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to 
make three heaps. It consisted partly of native grains ; 
part had been melted into bars ; but the greatest portion was 
in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and curious toys, 
together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers, executed 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 87 

with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were, also, quan- 
tities of collars, hracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, 
in which the gold and feather-work were richly powdered with 
pearls and precious stones. Many of the articles were even 
more admirable for the workmanship than for the value of 
the materials ; such, indeed — if we may take the report of 
Cortez to one who would himself have soon an opportunity 
to judge of its veracity, and whom it would not he safe to 
trifle with — as no monarch in Europe could boast in his 
dominions ! 

" Magnificent as it was, Montezuma expressed his regret 
that the treasure was no larger. But he had diminished it, 
he said, by his former gifts to the white men, ' Take it,' 
he added, * Malinche, and let it be recorded in your aimals, 
that Montezuma sent -this preseilt to your master.' " 



CHAPTER XI. 

Alas Poor Mexico ! — Marquette and Joliet — La Salle — His pretended retire- 
ment from the Order of Jesus — His Fur Monopoly — He Descends the 
Mississippi to its mouth — His Death — Remarks — Commencement of the 
Second Intercolonial War. 

Poor Mexico! delivered over to the tender mercies of 
Catholic "Missionary effort," how hast thou thriven? how 
grown apace in godliness and gold — in temporal and spiritual 
prosperity? Whither fled the god-born line of Moteuczoma, 
the far descended from the imperial loins of the Child of the 
Sun — Acamapitzin (he who has reeds in his fist), the first king 
of the rush-floated colony who had founded the empire of Mex- 
ico ? Whither vanished the splendors of that haughty line ? 
where those floating gardens, concerning the boundless mag- 
nificence and extent of which Cortez writes to Charles V, his 
master, that not all the royal gardens of Europe can afford a 
comparison of their grandeur ? Where the huge temples to 
the God of Fire, with their myriad simple votaries to a strange 
but bloody creed? their splendid festivals of flowers, and 
dance, and feast, which made the round of the abundant year? 
Where the innumerable cities, hewn from huge blocks of 
stone, or piled as solidly from the imperishable sun-burnt 
bricks ? Where the prodigious aqueducts and endl?ss cause- 
ways which far surpassed the glories of old Eome ? Where 
the mighty treasures of gold and silver — of priceless gems 
and arts as priceless? Where the pictured histories which, 
preserving the ancient story of a New World in graphic 
forms, was the rightful property of mankind? 

"Where are these archives?" thunders "Sam." "Where 
are these treasures? Where these precious gems and more 
precious arts ? Where the mighty " Ways " — these fast-built 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 89 

cities — these simple and happy millions, making merry 
amid peaceful abundance ? Where the lost architecture ? 
Where the ghosts of my majestic brothers, the Moteuczoma?" 

" Sent to Purgatory, because they have not paid for masses 
enough yet to buy their way out," echoes a sepulchral 
answer from the tumbled ruins of fallen, desolate and rav- 
ished empire ! Mexico is no more ; she is but a myth, a 
fragment of the past s she has been "conserved" and con- 
verted by the Catholic Church! What more can be said? 
Amen. But to return to our proposed survey of the move- 
ments of the Ereuch Jesuits toward the South, of which 
La Salle is the principal hero. 

The Jesuit Marquette had previously explored, in company 
with Joliet, a French trader, through the Wisconsin river, 
the upper waters of the Mississippi, as far as the mouth of 
the Arkansas, but were turned back from that point by the 
reports of dangerous aud hostile tribes below. The discov- 
eries of Marquette amounted to little more than convicting 
the heretofore entertained theory that the Mississippi dis- 
charged itself into the Chesapeake Bay instead of the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

Among other adventurers who had passed over to New 
France since its transfer to the French West India Com- 
pany, was the young La Salle, a native of Eouen, educated 
as a Jesuit, but who went to Canada to seek his fortune by 
discovering an over-land passage to China and Japan. After 
giving proofs of sagacious activity by explorations in Lakes 
Ontario and Erie, he had returned to France, and had ob- 
tained there from the king, to whom Canada had reverted 
since the recent dissolution of the West India Company, the 
grant of Fort Frontenac, a post at the outlet of Ontario, on 
the spot where Kingston now stands, built three years before 
by the Count de Frontenac, who had succeeded at that time 
to the office of Governor-General. On condition of keeping 
up that post. La Salle received the grant of a wide circuit 
of the neighboring country, and an exclusive right of trade 
with the Iroquois, as a check upon whom the fort had been 
built. But his ardent and restless disposition was not thus 
to be satisfied. Fired by reports of the recently discovered 
great river of the West, while Virginia was distracted by 
Bacon's insurrection, and New England yet smarting under 
8* 



90 Historical and 

the effects of Philip's war, La Salle left his fur trade, his 
fields, his cattle, his vessels and his Indian dependents at 
Fort Frontenac, and, repairing to France a second time, 
obtained a royal commission for perfecting the discovery of 
the Mississippi, and, at the same time, a monopoly of the trade 
in buffalo skins, which seemed likely to prove the chief staple 
of that region. 

Thus successful in his mission, L^ Salle returned to Fort 
Frontenac with men and stores to prosecute his enterprise, 
accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, an Italian soldier, who 
acted as his lieutenant. Before winter, he ascended Lake 
Ontario, entered the Niagara, and passing round the falls, 
selected a spot at the foot of Lake Erie, not far from the 
present site of Buffalo, where he commenced building the 
" Griffin," a bark of sixty tons. This bark, in the course of 
the next summer, was equipped with sails and cordage 
brought from Fort Frontenac, and in the autumn, first of 
civilized vessels, she plowed her way up Lake Erie, bearing 
La Salle, Tonti, the Fleming Hennepin, and several other 
friars of the Recollect order. Sixty sailors, boatmen, hunt- 
ers and soldiers made up the company. Having entered 
Detroit, " the strait " or river at the head of Lake Erie, 
they passed through it into that limpid sheet of water, to 
which La Salle gave the characteristic name of St. Clair. 
Hence they ascended by a second strait into Lake Huron, 
and through the length of that great lake, by the Straits 
of Mackinaw, into Lake Michigan, whence they passed into 
Green Bay, and, after a voyage of twenty days, cast anchor 
at its head, thus first tracing a passage now fast becoming 
one of the great highways of commerce. 

The Griffin was sent back with a rich lading of furs, 
under orders to return with provisions and supplies, to be 
conveyed to the head of Lake Michigan ; but, unfortunately, 
she was shipwrecked on her homeward passage. La Salle 
and his company proceeded, meanwhile, in birch-bark canoes, 
up Lake Michigan, to the mouth of the St. Joseph's, where 
already there was a Jesuit mission. Here they built a fort 
called the Post of the JMiamis, the name by which the river 
was then known. La Salle, with most of his people, pres- 
ently crossed to a branch of the Illinois, down which they 
descended into the main stream, on whose banks, below 



Re VOLUTION AEY INCIDENTS. 91 

Peoria, tliey built a second fort, called Qrevecoeur (Heart- 
break), to signify their disappointment at the non-arrival of 
the Griffin, of which nothing had yet been heard. 

To hasten or replace the necessary supplies, the ardent 
and determined La Salle set off on foot, with only three 
attendants, and, following the dividing ridge which separates 
tlie tributaries of tlie lakes from those of the Ohio, he made 
his way back again to Fort Frontenac, where he found his 
affairs in the greatest confusion, himself reported dead, and 
his property seized by his creditors. But, by the Governor's 
aid, he made arrangements which enabled him to continue 
the prosecution of his enterprise. 

During La Salle's absence, in obedience to orders previ- 
ously given, Dacan and Hennepin descended the Illinois to 
the Mississippi, and, turning northward, explored that river 
as high up as the Falls of St. Anthony. On their way back 
they entered the Wisconsin, and, by the Fox river, passed 
to Green Bay; whence Hennepin returned to Quebec and to 
France, where he wrote and published an account of his 
travels. 

Tonti, meanwhile, attacked by the Iroquois, who had made 
a sudden onslaught on the Illinois villages, fled also to Green 
Bay ; and, when La Salle returned the next autumn with 
recruits and supplies, he found Forts Miami and Crevecceur 
deserted. Having built a new fort in the country of the 
Illinois, which he called St. Louis, with indefatigable energy 
he returned again to Frontenac, encountering Tonti on his 
way ; and, having collected a new company, came back the 
same year to the Illinois, and during the winter built and 
rigged a small barge, in which, at length, he descended to the 
gulf. Formal possession of the mouth of the river was cere- 
moniously taken for the King of France, The country on 
the banks of the Mississippi received the name of Louisiana, 
in honor of Louis XIV, then at the bight of his power and 
reputation ; but the attempt to fix upon the river itself the 
name of Colbert did not succeed. 

Having made his way back to Quebec, leaving Tonti in 
command at Fort St. Louis, La Salle returned a third time 
to France, whither the news of his discovery had preceded 
him, and had excited great expectations. In spite of repre- 
sentations from Canada by his enemies, of whom his harsh 



92 Historical axd 

and overbearing temper made him many, lie was presently 
furnished with a frigate and three other ships, on board of 
which embarked five priests, twelve gentlemen, fifty soldiers, 
a number of hired mechanics, and a small body of volunteer 
agricultural emigrants, well furnished with tools and pro- 
visions ; in all two hundred and eighty persons, designed to 
plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. 

Informed of this intended enteri^rise, Tonti, with twenty 
Canadians and thirty Indians, descended from Fort St. Louis 
to meet his old commander. But La Salle's vessels missed 
the entrance to the Mississippi, passed to the westward, and 
after a vain search for the river's mouth, landed their feeble 
and dispirited company at some undetermined spot on the 
coast of Texas. A fort was built and named St. Louis. La 
Salle, with characteristic activity, in the vain hope of finding 
the Mississippi, penetrated and explored the surrounding 
country. No succors came from France ; the only vessel left 
with the colonists was wrecked ; victims to the climate, to 
home-sickness, and despair, they were presently reduced to 
thirty-six persons. In this extremity. La Salle set off with 
sixteen men, determined to reach Canada by land ; but, after 
three months' wanderings, he was murdered by two mutin- 
ous companions. The murderers were themselves murdered ; 
some of the men joined the Indians ; finally, five of them 
reached a point at the mouth of the Arkansas, where Tonti, 
returning disappointed from the gulf, had established a little 
post. With the Indians nearest the mouth of the Mississippi 
Tonti left a letter to La Salle, which they faithfully pre- 
served for fourteen years, and delivered to the first French- 
men who made their appearance. 

The twenty men left by La Salle at Fort St. Louis 
obscurely perished, and even the site of the fort passed into 
oblivion. Yet France in after times claimed the region thus 
transiently occupied as a part of Louisiana. The same claim 
was revived more than a century afterward on behalf of the 
United States, to which Louisiana had been transferred by 
purchase. 

This is Hildreth's account of La Salle and his career.' 
But it may be as well to specify, in commenting upon this 
narrative, that Bancroft takes good care to mention that " La 
Salle being of a good family, he had renounced his inherit- 



Revolutionary Incidents. 9S 

ance by entering the seminary of the Jesuits. After profit- 
ing by the discipline of their scliools, and obtaining theii 
praise for purity and diligence, he hatl taken his discharge 
from the fraternity ; and, with no companions but poverty and 
a boundless spirit of enterprise, about the year 1667, when 
the attention of all France was directed toward Canada, 
the young adventurer embarked for fame and fortune in 
New France." Now any one, who has carefully read our 
exposition of the principles of the organization of Loyola's 
Order, will understand how much this " taken his discharge " 
amounts to in reality. It means nothing more than that La 
Salle, at the urgency of his own adventurous spirit and 
probable request, had been transferred to some one of the many 
secret grades of the Order, which included not only women 
and Knights, but men of all ranks and occupations ; he be- 
came, in a word, one of the " silent members," who, released 
from all ecclesiastical functions, outwardly constituted the 
most formidable agents of the Order. No better evidence 
of this could be offered than that his first effort was to obtain, 
in his own name, the coveted monopoly of the Fur Trade, 
which the missionaries proper have yet been unable wholly to 
absorb. But who can doubt that La Salle was virtually as 
good a Jesuit still — with that irrevocable vow of poverty 
upon his soul — as the saintly Marquette, or any avowed dig- 
nitary of the Order ? La Salle still loved adventure much — 
but, as in duty bound — the Order more. It must be remem- 
bered that this vow of poverty, once taken, was retrospective, 
and as well forever, prospective, so that little good must his 
Fur Trade monopoly have ever done the poor adventurer — so 
soon as substantiated, it must have gone into the hands of 
the Order, whose agent in trust he was. 

But thus it has ever been with those historical oracles 
whose brains and sympathies are so magnificently capacious 
that, to be merely Protestant, and tell a straight-forward 
truth plainly about a Body so revered for learning as this of the 
Jesuits, seems simply plebeian ! Faugh ! the contrast of the 
cool manner in which Hildreth disposes of this question may 
be remembered in the quotation given above. But this ex- 
ploration of La Salle, though not immediately successful, 
constituted the future basis of French Imperial claims and 
Jesuit encroachments on the South ; and we shall see too. 



^4 Historical and 

even so early as during the progress of the third intercolo- 
nial war, they began to make themselves felt through their 
savage allies in that quarter. Hildreth thus relates the 
opening of this new war between the bloody partisans of 
Jesuitism and the Protestant colonies : 

At the close of the late war, there had remained in the 
whole of Maine and Sagadahoc only four inhabited towns. 
Others had been reoccupied, and industry was resuming its 
course, when the breaking out of the new war with France 
excited new apprehensions. Earnest efforts were made to 
keep the Eastern Indians quiet. Dudley undertook a pro- 
gress as far east as Pemaquid to renew the treaties. But a 
band of unprincipled colonists presently attacked and plun- 
dered the half-breed son of the Baron Castin, who dwelt on 
the Penobscot, and had succeeded there to some share of his 
father's influence. In consequence of this outrage, before 
long hostilities were renewed. (1703.) 

The broken remnants of those Eastern tribes, whose 
vicinity to the English had exposed them most, were collected 
by the French, and established in two villages, Becancour 
and St. Francis, on two rivers of the same names, flowing 
from the south into the St. Lawrence. Here they had chapels 
and priests. Eeligious zeal and the remembrance of exile 
inflamed their natural aptitude for war. They were always 
ready for expeditions against the frontiers of New England, 
against which, in consequence of the truce with the Five 
Nations, the whole force of Canada was now directed. (1704.) 

With two hundred Canadians and a hundred and fifty In- 
dians, Hertelle de Eouville, descending along the Connecticut, 
approached Deerfield, then the northwestern frontier town 
of New England. Like the other frontier villages, it was 
inclosed by a palisade ; but the sentinels slept, and high\ 
snow-drifts piled against the inclosure made entrance easy. 
Why repeat a story of monotonous horrors ? The village 
was burned ; forty-seven of the inhabitants were slain ; the 
minister and his family, with upward of a hundred others, 
were carried into captivity. Dread and terror seized the in- 
habitants of Massachusetts. The whole of their extended 
northern frontier was liable to similar attacks. They were 
exposed alone to the whole brunt of the war. A reward of 
^QQ was oftered for Indian prisoners under ten years of age, 



Revolutionary' Incidents. 95 

and twice as much for older prisoners, or for scalps — premi- 
ums afterward variously mixiified and considerably increased. 
Thus stimulated, tlie colonial rangers were soon able to rival, 
and presently to surpass, tlie Indians in the endurance of 
cold and fatigue, and to follow up a trail with equal sagacity. 
Yet so shy and scattered were these lurking enemies, and so 
skilled in all the arts of that skulking warfare wdiich they 
practiced, that each Indian scalp taken during this war was 
estimated to have cost the colony upward of XIOOO, ^3333. 
The barbarizing influence of such a struggle was even more 
to be deprec<xted than its cost and its miseries. Some of the 
Connecticut Indians were employed as auxiliaries, but they 
seemed to have lost their warlike spirit. 

The veteran Church, so soon as he heard of the burning 
of Deerfield, mounted his horse and rode seventy miles to 
offer his services to Governor Dudley. 

Next year the Indian ravages became more alarming than 
ever. The very neighborhood of Boston was threatened. 
Hertelle de Rouville, again descended from Canada, this time 
by the valley of the Merrimac, attacked Haverhill, the fron- 
tier town on that river, scarcely yet recovered from the rav- 
ages of the former war. Having piously prayed together, De 
Rouville and his Indians rushed into the town about an hour 
before sunrise. The houses were plundered and set on fire ; 
forty or fifty of the inhabitants were slain, some of them per- 
ishing in the flames of the houses; as many more, taken 
prisoners, were carried off to Canada. Hotly pursued from 
the neighboring towns, the assailants were oblio-ed to fio-ht 
shortly after leaving Haverhill, yet, with the loss of some of 
their prisoners, they succeeded in making good their retreat. 

Alarmed at this new specimen of French and Indian enter- 
prise, the General Court of Massachusetts called the queen's 
attention to the "consuming war" in which they had been 
engaged, now little short of twenty years. They begged her 
commands to the Mohawks to fall upon the French, and her 
assistance to conquer Canada and Acadie. 

Vetch, a Boston merchant, one of the late commissioners to 
Quebec to treat for the exchange of prisoners, who had taken 
that opportunity to make soundings of the channel of the St. 
Lawrence, was sent to England to press this request. He 
came back with the promise of a fleet and army, news which, 



96 IlrSTORICAL AND 

in spite of the opposition of the traders of Alhaiiy, who car- 
ried on a gainful commerce with Canada, excited in New York 
as well as New England, the greatest enthusiasm. Ingolsby, 
lieutenant-governor of New York, took care to keep the 
Assembly in good humor by resigning into their hands the 
appointment of officers, and the regulation, by a committee, 
of the commissary department. Five hundred men were 
raised ; provisions were promised for the troops of the other 
colonies expected to co-operate ; and bills of credit, for the first 
time in New York, were issued to pay the expense. To pro- 
vide means for equipping their quotas, Connecticut and New 
Jersey, equally zealous, now also issued their first paper 
money. 

This enthusiasm did not extend to Pennsylvania, Called 
upon by Governor Gookin to contribute a hundred and fifty 
soldiers, the Quaker Legislature protested, "with all humili- 
ty," that "they could not, in conscience, provide money to 
hire men to kill each other." Out of their dutiful attach- 
ment to the queen, in spite of their scruples, they tendered 
her a present of £500 ; but this pittance Gookin refused to 
accept. 

The plan of campaign devised twenty years before by 
Leisler and Phipps was now again revived. The four eastern 
clans of the Iroquois had been persuaded to raise the 
hatchet. The quotas of Connecticut, New York, and New 
Jfersey, with four independent companies of a hundred men 
each, the regular garrison of New York, amounting in the 
whole to one thousand five hundred men, were assembled at 
Wood Creek, near the head of Lake Champlain, for an attack 
Hi Montreal. The command of these troops was given by the 
contributing Assemblies to Nicholson, bred an army officer, 
an old official, a man of very active disposition, whom we have 
seen successively governor of New York, of Maryland, and of 
Virginia, and whose former zeal in urging a grant by Vir 
ginia for the defense of New York was now gratefully re- 
membered. 

Another army of twelve hundred men, the quotas of Mas- 
sachusetts, New Hampshire, and Khode Island, destined to 
operate against Quebec, anxiously awaited at Boston tlie 
arrival of the promised British fleet. But new disasters in 
Spain again diverted this expected aid ; and all these expen 



Revolutionary Incidents. 97 

sive preparations, by far the greatest yet made in the British 
colonies, fell fruitless to the ground. 

The governors of the colonies concerned in this enterprise, 
met at Boston, and Nicholson and Vetch carried to England 
their solicitations and complaints. Schuyler, of Albany, who 
exercised a great influence over the Mohawks, imitated the 
policy of the governor of Canada, by taking with him to Eng- 
land five Mohawk warriors. Tricked out in scarlet cloaks, 
borrowed from the wardrobe of a London theater, these sav- 
ages attracted a large share of public attention. The 
"Tatler" and "Spectator," then in the course of publication, 
make several allusions to them. 

Nicholson and Vetch returned the next summer with two 
ships of war and five hundred marines. Connecticut and 
New Hampshire each raised a regiment ; two regiments were 
contributed by Massachusetts ; and Nicholson and Vetch, with 
twenty New England transports, sailed to attack Port Eoyal. 
The French garrison, feeble and mutinous, surrendered as 
soon as the siege was formed. By the terms of the capitula- 
tion, the inhabitants within a circuit of three miles, upon 
taking an oath of allegiance to England, were to be protected 
for two years, and were to have that period to dispose of their 
property. The miserable inhabitants of the other districts 
in vain solicited the same terms. They were treated as pris- 
oners at discretion ; their property was plundered ; it was 
even proposed to drive them from their homes, " unless they 
would turn Protestants." A message was sent to the gov- 
ernor of Canada, that if he did not put a stop to the Indian 
parties against the frontiers of New England, any cruelties 
which they might inflict, should be retorted on the unhappy 
Acadians. Such conduct was little calculated to secure quiet 
possession of the province ; and Vetch, left at Port Royal with 
four hundred men, soon found himself invested by the Aca- 
dians and the Indians. 

Aid from England having been solicited by the colonies in 
this war, that which the Whigs consistently refused, had been, 
to the sudden surprise of the petitioners, granted by the new 
Tory adininistration. A large fleet and army was dispatched 
against Canada, under the command of General Hill and 
Sir Hovenden Walker. Hildreth says: 
9 



98 Historical and 

Within a fortnight after Nicholson had given the first 
notice of what was intended, a fleet of fifteen ships of war, 
with forty transports, hriuging five veteran regiments of 
Marlborough's army, arrived at Boston. Here they wefe 
detained upward of a month, v.aiting for provisions and the 
colonial auxiliaries. The want of notice caused some inevi- 
table delay; but the northern colonies exerted themselves 
with remarkable promptitude and vigor. The credit of 
the English treasury, broken down by a long and expensive 
war, was so low at Boston, that nobody would purchase bills 
upon it without an indorsement, which Massachusetts fur- 
nished in the shape of bills of credit to the amount of 
X40,000, advanced to the merchants who supplied provisions 
to the fleet. After a delay, of which the ofiicers loudly com- 
j)laincd, the ships sailed at last with seven thousand men on 
board, half regulars and half provincials. 

New York issued X 10,000 in bills of credit to pay the 
expense of her share of the enterprise, taking care, however, 
to deposit the money in the hands of special commissioners. 
Pennsylvania, under the name of a present to the queen, 
contributed X2,000, but none of the colonies further south 
seemed to have taken any interest in the matter. Some 
fifteen hundred troops, the quotas of Connecticut, New York, 
and New Jersey, again placed under the command of Nichol- 
son, assembled at Albany, for an attack on Montreal simul- 
taneously with that on Quebec, and Nicholson's camp was 
presently joined by eight hundred warriors of the Five Na- 
tions. But tlie advance was cut short by news of the failure 
of the expedition by sea. 

As the fleet was proceeding up the St. Lawrence during 
a dark and stormy night, through the obstinacy and negli- 
gence of Admiral Walker, eight transports were wrecked, 
and near a thousand men perished. Discouraged at this 
disaster, the Admiral turned about, and, sending home the 
colonial transports, sailed direct for England, not even stop- 
ping by the way, as his instructions had indicated, to attack 
the French posts in Newfoundland. The British officers con- 
cerned in the expedition, attempted to shift off on the col- 
onists the blame of this failure. They alleged * the interest- 
c'dness, the ill-nature, and sourness of these people, whose 
liypocrisy and canting are insupportable.' The indignant 



EeVOLUTIONARY iNCIDlfiNTS. 99 

colonists, suspicious of the Tory .ministry, believed that the 
whole enterprise was a scheme meant to fail, and specially 
designed for their disgrace and impoverishment. Harley, 
having quarreled with his colleagues, denounced it to the 
House of Commons as a job intended to put .£20,000 into 
the pockets of St. John and Harcourt. Nowhere was the 
failure of this enterprise more felt than in New York. A 
war with the Five Nations was even apprehended. That 
confederacy showed a strong disposition to go over to the 
French." 

That " the hlood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith '' 
worked well now. The Jesuits had at last obtained a hold 
upon the nations composing the League of the Iroquois, 
which had, as yet, proved the sole protectors of the early 
colonists on the lakes. There was an incidental war with 
the Tuscaroras in the meantime, against the German emi- 
grants of North Carolina principally. Hear Hildreth's 
account : 

The expedition against Norridgewock, which the Gover- 
nor had delayed, but afterward, on the remonstrance of the 
court, had sent forward, was not successful in seizing Easles : 
but his papers, which fell into the hands of the assailants, 
who pillaged the church and the missionary's house, strength- 
ened suspicions that the Indians were encouraged by Cana- 
dian support. The Indians retorted the attack on Norridge- 
wock by burning Brunswick, a new village recently established 
on the Androscoggin. The tribes of Nova Seotia, also, joined 
in the war. At the Gut of Canso they seized seventeen fish- 
ing vessels belonging to Massachusetts, several of which, 
however, were presently recovered, with severe loss to the 
Indian captors. 

When the General Court came together, new disputes 
arose between the governor and the House as to the conduct 
of the war, of which the representatives sought to engross 
the entire management. Disgusted by the opposition of an 
Assembly " more fit," as he thought, " for the affairs of farm- 
ing than for the duty of legislators," Shute had secretly 
obtained leave to return home; and, without giving any 
intimation of his purposes, he suddenly left tiie province. 
The administration, by his departure, passed int® the hands 



100 Historical and 

of Dummer, tlie lieutenant-governor, who remained at tho 
head of aftairs for the next six years. 

The General Court soon accommodated with Dummer the 
quarrel which Shute had left on his hands. He yielded to 
some of their demands, and they ahandoned others. The 
Indian war proved expensive and annoying, and large issues 
of paper money heeame necessary to carry it on. 

Connecticut, applied to for aid against the Indians, pro- 
fessed scruples as to the justice of the war, and begged 
Massachusetts to take care lest innocent blood were slied. 
These scruples were presently quieted, and Connecticut fur- 
nished the quota asked for. Attempts repeatedly made to 
engage the assistance of the Mohawks were less successful. 
They not only I'ofused to take up the hatchet, but, what was 
still more unpalatable, they advised IMassachusetts, as a sure 
means of peace, to restore the Indian lands and prisoners. 

The attacks of the Indians extended along the whole 
northern frontier as far west as Connecticut river. To cover 
the towns in that valley. Fort Dummer was presently erected, 
on the site of what is now Brattlebm'ough, the oldest English 
settlement within the limits of the present State of Vermont. 

Having seized an armed schooner in one bf the eastern 
harbors, a party of Indians cruised along the coast, and 
captured no less than seven vessels. It was deemed neces- 
sary to strike some decisive blow. Norridgewoek was sur- 
prised by a second expedition ; Rasles was slain, with some 
thirty of his Indian disciples ; the sacred vessels and " the 
adorable body of Jesus Christ"' were scoffingly profaned; 
the chapel was pillaged and burned, and the village broken 
up. _ 

The premium on scalps was raised to XI 00, payable, how- 
ever, in the depreciated currency. Lovewell, a noted partisan, 
surprised, near the head of Salmon Falls river, ten Indians 
asleep round a fire. He killed them all, and marched in 
triumph to Dover, with their scalps hooped and elevated on 
poles. In a second expedition he was less successful. • Neai 
the head of the Saco, on the margin of a pond, he fell into 
an Indian ambush, and was slain at the first fire, with eiglit 
of his men. The rest defended themselves bravely through 
a whole day's fight, repulsed the Indians, and made good 
their retreat. 



REVOLUTrO.VARY INCIDENTS. 101 

Embasdadors, meanwliile, were sent to Canada to rcmon- 
istrate against tlie countenance ffiven there to the hostile In- 
dians ; and an application was made to the king, to compel 
the neighboring colonies and the Mohawks to join in the war. 
The Board of Trade inclined to favor this request ; but, already, 
the Penobscots had proposed a peace, which the colonists 
were very glad to accept ; and the Norridgewocks presently 
came into it. Judicious measures were taken to protect the 
Indians against the extortion and villainy of private traders, 
by the establishment of public trading-houses to supply them 
with goods at cost. By this means, peace was preserved for 
many years, and the settlements in Maine and New Hamp- 
shire extended without interruption. 

The complicated designs of the French Jesuits assume an 
aspect of mystery and entanglement, which it does not com- 
port with our present purpose to unravel. We will let the 
plain historic character of the period tell for itself in the 
language of Hildreth. He says : 

Though the progress of New France, as compared with 
tliat of the British colonies, was but slow and inconsiderable, 
the French still entertained the grand project of appropriating 
the whole of that vast western valley from the great lakes 
to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iroquois were no longer hostile : 
and, if the missionary spirit was dying out, it had been suc- 
ceeded by a mercantile spirit hardly less energetic and deter- 
mined. The French fur traders ranged the whole west ; the 
Foxes, the only hostile tribe on the upper lakes, had been 
chastised and driven from Green Bay. By the treaty of 
Utrecht, the traffic with the western Indians was equally 
open to the English traders ; but it still remained, for the 
most part, in the hands of the French, constituting, indeed, 
almost the sole resource of Canada. The lands along the 
banks of the St. Lawrence had been granted in seigniories, 
much like the patroonships of New Netherland. The ten- 
ants who cultivated them, known as Jiahitans, produced little 
more than was necessary for the local consumption. Thev 
were often, however, better off than the seigneurs, or feudal 
lords, whose rents and feudal rights amounted to little. 
They looked chiefly to public offices or commissions in the 
army and navy as a means of support, and to them, there- 
fore, peace was always distasteful. By an edict of Louis XIV, 
9* 



102 Historical and 

tlie nobles of Canada had been authorized to engage in com- 
merce without any prejudice to their nobility. The fur trade, 
however, was principally in the hands of the bourgeoisie of 
Quebec and Montreal. The attempts to establish fisheries on 
the shores of the St. Lawrence had failed. Of the vessels 
that took cargoes to New France, some carried coal from 
Cape Breton to Martinique, to be used in boiling sugar ; others 
bought fish in Newfoundland ; but many returned in ballast. 
Notwithstanding objections in France, leave had been granted 
to establish linen manufactures in Canada, and coarse linens 
were now produced suflUcient for the local demand. (1728.) 

The administration of Canadian affairs was vested in the 
governor-general, the intendant, and a supreme council. The 
bishop named all the curates. The custom of Paris, the law 
of New France, under the conservative hands of the English, 
lias preserved, like the Roman-Dutch code in British Guiana, 
authority in America long after having lost it in Europe. 
The population of Canada numbered at this time about thirty 
thousand. Quebec was a city of five thousand inhabitants. 
Many of the principal officers of the government were es- 
tablishetl there, and it could boast, in consequence, a more 
agreeable society than any other American town. 

The " Creoles of Canada," natives, that is, of European 
descent, are described by Charlevoix as " well made, large, 
strong, robust, vigorous, enterprising, brave and indefatigable, 
but unpolished, presumptuous, sell-reliant, esteeming them- 
selves above all the nations of the earth, and somewhat lack- 
ing in filial veneration " — a i)ortrait, not of the Canadian 
Creoles merely, but of the whole Creole-American race. The 
Canadians, true to their French origin, though inferior in 
industry, and much less wealthy, understood better than the 
Anglo-Americans the art of making themselves happy. 

in Louisiana the French liad secured the friendship of tlie 
Choctaws, a numerous confederacy inhabiting the region from 
the Lower Mississippi eastward to the Alabama, where they 
bordered on the Creeks. (1728.) Surrounded by the Choc- 
taws, and dwelling mostly in a single village in the close 
vicinity of Fort Rosalie, where the Natchez, limited in num- 
bers and extent of territory, but remarkable for a peculiar 
language and their singular religious and social institutions, 
which resembled, in several points, those of the Peruvians of 



Eevolutionaey Incidents. 10i5 

Soutli America. Like the Peruvians, tliey worsliiped tlio 
sun, from whom, also, their great chief claimed to he de- 
scended. In the great wigwam dedicated to their god, an 
undying fire was kept burning. Beside their principal chief, 
the " Great Sun," object of their highest reverence, there 
was a race of inferior chiefs or " suns," quite distinct from 
die common people. The hierarchical system was complete ; 
but the small number of the Natchez did not allow of any 
of those striking results of combined labor, extorted by re- 
ligious reverence, so remarkable among the Mexicans and 
Peruvians. The Natchez hardly differed in externals from 
the other tribes about them. 

Alarmed at the encroachments of the French at Fort Ros- 
alie, by whom their very village was demanded as a s"t? for 
plantations, the Natchez presently began to grow hostile — a 
feeling stimulated by the Chickasaws, who dwelt northwardly 
up the east bank of the Mississippi, toward the mouth of the 
Ohio, and whose country extended eastward to tlie lands of 
the Cherokees. 

Thus encouraged, the Natchez fell unexpectedly on the 
French settlement at Fort Rosalie, massacred the men to the 
Qumber of two hundred, and made the women and children 
prisoners, (Nov. 1720.) The negro slaves were not harmed, 
and they presently joined the Indians. The settlers in the 
vicinity of New Orleans amounted, by this time, to near six 
thousand. But a third of that number were slaves, and 
dread of insurrection added to the k'rrors of Indian war. 

While the people of New Orleans mustered their forces 
and fortified the city, Le Sueur, with a body of seven hundred 
Choctaw warriors, surprised the Natchez feasting over their 
victory, and liberated a part of the prisoners. Forces which 
presently arrived from New Orleans completed the success. 
Some of the discomfited Natchez fled to the Chickasaws, 
others crossed the Mississippi. But they were pursued, and 
only a few made good their escape. The great chief and 
four hundred others, prisoners in tlie hands of the French, 
were sent to St. Domingo and s )ld as slaves. (Jan. Feb. 
1730.) 

The English government, anxious to confirm their influ- 
ence over the Cherokees, sent Sir Alexander Gumming to 
Carolina, specially authorized to renew the treaties with that 



104 Historical and 

powerful confederacy. Gumming' held several councils in the 
Cherokee country ; and seven of the principal chiefs were 
persuaded to accompany him to England on a visit to their 
" great father," the king. These chiefs signed a treaty with 
the Board of Trade, hy which they promised the return of 
all runaway slaves, and were made to acknowledge them- 
selves the subjects of Great Britain. Hence, in the subse- 
quent controversy with the French, a pretense on the part 
of Great Britain, as in the case of the Six Nations, to sove- 
reignty all over the Cherokee territory. 

While these events transpired at the south, the Canadian 
authorities excited apprehensions, by sending a party from 
Montreal up Lake Champlain, to occupy Crown Point, within 
a hundred miles of Albany. The Assembly of New York 
resolved that " this encroachment, if not prevented," would 
prove of '* tue most pernicious consequence to this and other 
colonies ;" and they sent notice to Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
and Pennsylvania, and applied to England for aid. Massa- 
chusetts entered warmly into their feelings. The Board of 
Trade supported their complaints; but the judicious policy of 
Walpole was peace. The experience of the last two wars, 
which had saddled England, to so little purpose, with a debt 
of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, was not yet for- 
gotten, and in spite of the remonstrances of New York and 
New England, the French were allowed quietly to occupy the 
shores of a lake, which, more than a century previous, they 
had been the first to explore. 

Only at this single point, did the French yet approach the 
settlements of the English. There was a short and easy 
communication from Lake Erie with the upper waters of the 
Ohio ; but no attempt was made by the French to occupy 
those waters, of which, indeed, they seem as yet to haA^e 
known but little. The communication between Canada and 
Louisiana was carried on by the distant routes of Green Bay 
and the Wisconsin, Lake Michigan and the Illinois, and, 
presently, by the Maumee and the Wabash, which latter 
river was regarded by the French as the main stream, to 
which the Ohio was but a tributary. Low down the Wabash 
the post of St. Vincent's was presently established. The 
Blue Eidge bounded as yet the back settlements of Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia. Unknown mountains and unthreaded 



Eevolutioxart Incidents. 105 

forests separated, for a few years longer, the rival claimants 
of a continent. 

Yet already the communication between Canada and Lou- 
isiana was exposed to ohstructions. English traders from 
<]3arolina, penetrating through the country of the Cherokees, 
reached the distant Chickasaws, by whom, as enemies of the 
French, they were kindly received. These traders, in their 
turn, stimulated the hostility of the Chickasaws, whose 
canoes, filled with warriors, attacked the French boats navi- 
gating backward and forward from the Illinois to New 
Orleans. The Chickasaws even attempted, in conjunction 
with the Eno-lish traders, to detach the tribes of the north- 
west from the French interest. 

Puritan courage and enterprise seem to have been every- 
where sufficient for the heading and counterbalancing all 
that corpse-like submission and fanaticism of the Jesuit 
could achieve. Protestantism had managed to make good 
friends in advance, as we have seen, of the Cherokees and 
Chickasaws, and opposed this alliance as a barrier upon the 
south nearly equal, in efficiency, to that of the Iroquois on 
the north. But hear further the narrative of the historian, 
upon whose careful labors the biographer of " Sam " has 
found that no one at this day can so far improve upon. He 
continues : 

The Mississippi Company, utterly disappointed in its 
expectations of profit, and alarmed at the expense of the 
war with the Natchez, resigned Louisiana to the crown, and 
the Canadian Bienville, who had shared the fatigues and 
anxieties of the first settlement, was again commissioned as 
royal Governor ; but the system of administration remained 
in most respects as before. The hostility of the Chickasaws 
seeming to threaten, in the south-west, an obstacle to the 
French dominion similar to that which the Iroquois had for- 
merly presented to the north, it was resolved to attempt the 
conquest of that haughty nation, by a simultaneous attack 
from opposite directions. 

Proceeding from New Orleans to Mobile with a fleet of 
sixty boats and canoes, Bienville ascended the Tombigbee to 
a fort or trading-house, lately established, two hundred and 
fifty miles up that river. There he was joined by twelve 
hundred Choctaws. The combined force having paddled up 



106 HiSTOEICAL AND 

the Tombigbee to the head of navigation, marched from the 
landing now known as Cotton Gin Port against a stronghold 
of the Chickasaws, situated about twenty miles west of it. 
Aware, liowever, of the approach of their enemies, and en- 
couraged by some English traders, the Chickasaws repuked 
the attack, and compelled the French and their allies to an 
nglorious retreat. 

D'Artaguette, who simultaneously descended from the 
Illinois with fifty Frenchmen and a thousand Indians, had 
been still more unlucky. Not hearing anything of the 
other expedition, he too had ventured a separate attack on a 
more northerly fort of the Chickasaws, in which he fell, 
severely wounded. His forces were repulsed and hotly pur- 
sued. Himself and several others, taken prisoners, were 
burned at the stake. In consequence, no doubt, of the 
expense of this war, the "card money" system which pre- 
vailed in Canada was introduced in Louisiana also. 

Three years after, the whole strength of New France was 
again exerted for the conquest of the Chickasaws. At a 
post established within their country, at that bluff on the 
Mississippi now the site of tlie city of Memphis, twelve 
hundred French soldiers were assembled, with twice as many 
Indians and negroes. But the ranks were soon thinned by 
sickness, and the French were glad to purchase peace by 
withdrawing their forces, leaving the Chickasaws still inde- 
pendent and indomitable. 

The process for vacating the charter of Carolina had been 
delayed by the privilege of peerage, enjoyed by several of 
the proprietaries. To bring this to a conclusion, it was pro- 
posed to buy the province, and the bargain for that purpose 
was presently confirmed by act of Parliament. Seven of the 
eight proprietaries relinquished to the crown all their interest 
for the sum of £17,500, to which were added £5000 more 
for arrears of quit-rents, claimed to the amount of £9000. 
Lord Carteret, the eighth proprietor, surrendered his rights 
of jurisdiction, but chose to retain his interest in the soil, 
his share of which, in the territory north of the Savannah, 
was specially set ofi" to him next to the Virginia line, which 
had been lately run, and marked as far westward as the 
Blue RidffG. 



Eevolutionaey Incidents. 1Q7 

Louisburg, on which the French had spent much money, 
was by far tlie strongest fort north of the Gulf of Mexico. 
But the prisoners of Canso, carried thither, and afterward 
dismissed on parole, reported the garrison to be weak, and 
the works out of repair. So long as the French held this 
fortress, it was sure to be a source of annoyance to New Eng- 
land, but to wait for British aid to capture it would be tedious 
and uncertain, public attention in Great Britain being much 
engrossed by a threatened invasion. Under these circum- 
stances, Shirley proposed to the General Court of Massachu- 
setts the bold enterprise of a colonial expedition, of which 
Louisburg should be the object. After six days' deliberation 
and two additional messages from the governor, this proposal 
was adopted by a majority of one vote. A circular letter, 
asking aid and co-operation, was sent to all the colonies as far 
south as Pennsylvania. In answer to this application, urged 
by a special messenger from Massachusetts, the Pennsylva- 
nia Assembly, still engaged in a warm controversy Avith 
Governor Thomas, voted £4000 of their currency to purchase 
provisions. The New Jersey Assembly, engaged, like that 
of Pennsylvania, in a violent quarrel with their governor, had 
refused to organize the militia or to vote supplies, unless Mor- 
ris would first consent to all their measures, including a new 
issue of paper money. They furnished, however, X2000 
toward the Louisburg expedition, but declined to raise any 
men. The New York Assembly, after a long debate, voted 
^£3000 of their currency ; but this seemed to Clinton a nig- 
gardly grant, and he sent, beside, a quantity of provisions 
purchased by private subscription, and ten eighteen-pounders 
from the King's magazine. Connecticut voted five hundred 
men, led by Roger Wolcott, afterward governor, and appoint- 
ed, by stipulation of the Connecticut Assembly, second in 
command of the expedition. Rhode Island and New Hamp- 
shire each raised a regiment of three hundred men; but the 
Rhode Island troops did not arrive till after Louisburg was 
taken. The chief burden of the enterprise, as was to be 
expected, fell on IMassachusetts. In seven weeks an army of 
three thousand two hundred and fifty men was enlisted, trans- 
ports were pressed, and bills of credit were profusely issued 
to pay the expense. Ten armed vessels were provided by 
Massachusetts, and one by each of the. other New England 



108 Historical and 

colonies. The command in chief was given to William Pep- 
perill, a native of Maine, a wealthy merchant, who had inher- 
ited and augmented a large fortune acquired by his father in 
the fisheries; a popular, enterprising, sagacious man, noted 
for his universal good fortune, but unacquainted with military 
affairs, except as a militia officer. Whitfield, then preaching 
on his third tour throughout the colonies, gave his influence 
in favor of the expedition by suggesting, as a motto for the 
flag of the New Hampshire regiment, " Nil desperandum 
Christo duce" — "Nothing is to be despaired of with Christ 
for a leader." The enterprise, under such auspices, assumed 
something of the character of an anti-Catholic crusade. One 
of the chaplains, a disciple of Whitfield, carried a hatchet, 
specially provided to hew down the images in the French 
churches. 

Eleven days after embarking at Boston, the Massachusetts 
armament assembled at Casco, to wait there the arrival of 
the Connecticut and Rhode Island quotas, and the melting 
of the ice by which Cape Breton -was environed. The New 
Hampshire troops were already there ; those from Connecti- 
cut came a few days after. Notice having been sent to Eng- 
land and the West Indies of the intended expedition, Captain 
Warren presently arrived with four ships of war, and, cruising 
before Louisburg, captured several vessels bound thither with 
supplies. Already, before his arrival, the New England 
cruisers had prevented the entry of a French thirty-gun ship. 
As soon as the ice permitted, the troops landed and com- 
menced the siege, but not with much skill, for they had no 
engineers. The artillery was commanded by Gridley, who 
served thirty years after in the same capacity in the first 
Massachusetts revolutionary army. Cannon and provisions 
had to be drawn on sledges, by human strength, over morasses 
and rocky hills. Five unsuccessful attacks were made, one 
after another, upon an island battery which protected the 
harbor. In that cold, foggy climate, the troops, very imper- 
fectly provided with tents, suffered severely from sickness, 
and more than a third were unfit for duty. But the French 
garrison was feeble and mutinous, and when the commander 
found that his supplies had been captured, he relieved the 
embarrassment of the besiegers by offering to capitulate. 
The capitulation included six hundred and fifty regular 



Revolutionary Incidents. 109 

soldiers, and near thirteen hundred effective inhabitants of 
the town, all of whom were to he shipped to France. The 
Island of St. John's presently submitted on the same terms. 
The loss during the siege was less than a hundred and fifty, 
but among those reluctantly detained to garrison the con- 
quered fortress ten times as many perished afterward by 
sickness. In the expedition of Vernon and this against 
Louisburg, perished a large number of the remaining Indians 
of New England, persuaded to enlist as soldiers in the colo- 
nial regiments. 

Some dispute arose as to the relative merits of the land 
and the naval forces, which iiad been joined during the siege 
by additional ships from England. Pepperell, however, was 
made a baronet, and botli he and Shirley were commissioned 
as colonels in the British army. Warren was promoted to 
the rank of rear admiral. The capture of this strong fortress, 
effected in the face of many strong obstacles, shed, indeed, a 
momentary luster over one of the most unsuccessful wars in 
which Britain was ever engaged. It attracted, also, special 
attention to the growing strength and enterprise of the people 
of New England, represented by Warren, in his communica- 
tions to the ministry, as having '* the highest notions of the 
rights and liberties of Englishmen; and, indeed, as almost 
Levelers." 

The French, on their side, were not idle. The garrison of 
Crowm Point sent out a detachment, which took the Massachu- 
setts fort at'Hoosick, now Williamstown, and presently sur- 
prised and ravaged the settlement recently established at 
Saratoga. Even the counties of Ulster and Orange, on the 
lower Hudson, struck with panic, expected the speedy arrival 
of Canadian and Indian invaders. 

The easy conquest of Louisburg revived the often disap- 
pointed hope of the conquest of Canada. Shirley submitted 
to Newcastle a plan for a colonial army to undertake this 
enterprise. But the Duke of Bedford, then at the head of the 
British marine, took alarm at the idea of "the independence 
it might create in those provinces, when they shall see witliin 
themselves so great an army, possessed of so great a country 
by right of conquest." The old plan was therefore preferred, 
of sending a fleet and army from England to capture Quebec, 
tAj be joined at Louisburg by the New England levies, while 
10 



110 Historical and 

the forces of other colonies operated in the rear, against 
Montreal. 

Orders were accordingly sent to the colonies to raise 
troops, which the king would pay. Hardly were these 
orders across the Atlantic, when the ministers changed their 
mind ; but, before the countermand arrived, the colonial 
levies were already on foot. In spite of the mortality at 
Louisburg, Massachusetts raised three thousand five hundred 
men, Connecticut raised a thousand, New Hampshire five 
hundred, Rhode Island three hundred. The province of New 
York votetl sixteen hundred men, New Jersey five hundred, 
Maryland three hundred, Virginia one hundred. Money was 
voted by the Pennsylvania Assembly for enlisting four 
hundred men. The troops from the southern colonies, and 
those also from Connecticut, assembled at Albany. The 
command, declined by Governor Gouch, of Virginia, was 
assumed by Clinton, of New York. Not only was Clinton 
involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, but a 
majority of the Council, headed by Delancey, the Chief 
Justice, continued to sit at New York during the Governor'b 
absence at Albany, and to dispute with him the administra- 
tion of the province. His military command was not less 
embarrassing. The corporation of Albany refused to pro- 
vide quarters for the soldiers ; the bills drawn by Clinton on 
the British treasury failed to purchase provisions ; impress- 
ment was resorted to, but it was not without difficulty that 
the troops were subsisted. 

The office of agent for the Five Nations, hitherto held by 
Jllajor Shuyler's son, had been taken frOm him by Clinton 
and given to William Johnston, who led a party of Mohawks, 
destined to act in front of the main army. Of Scotch-Irisli 
descent, Johnston had established liimself some ten or twelve 
years previously on the Mohawk river, thirty miles west of 
Albany, at the head of a new frontier settlement, undertaken 
on behalf of his uncle, Admiral Warren, who had married in 
New York, and had thus been led to engage in colonial land 
speculations. A man of coarse but vigorous mind, and great 
bodily strength, Johnston carefully cultivated the good will 
of the IMohawks, with whom he carried on a lucrative traflfic. 
He had an Indian wife, or mistress, sister of the afterward 
celebrated Brant; he acknowledged as his own, several 



Eevolutionaky Incidents. Ill 

naif-breed children ; and already had attained, by conformity 
to their customs and by natural aptitude, the same influence 
over the Mohawks possessed in the previous generation by 
Major Schuyler. 

As the British fleet did not make its appearance, fifteen 
hundred of the Massachusetts troops were marched to Albany 
to join Cliuton. But attention was soon drawn to matters 
nearer home. lustead of the expected English squadron, a 
French fleet of forty ships of war, with three thousand 
veteran troops on board, had sailed for the American coast, 
exciting a greater alarm throughout New England than had 
been felt since the threatened invasion of 1697. This alarm, 
the non-appearance of the British fleet, and the various dif- 
ficulties encountered on the march, put a stop to the 
advance on IMoutreal. A body of troops from Canada 
appeared at the head of the Bay of Fundy, and, being- 
joined by the French inhabitants there, threatened an attack 
on Annapolis. Boston was thought to be the great object 
of the enemy. To defend it, some ten thousand militia were 
collected, and such addditions were made to the fort, on 
Castle Island, as to render it the strongest British fortress in 
America. The French fleet, shattered by storms and deci- 
mated by a pestilential fever, effected nothing beyond alarm. 
The admiral died, the vice-admiral committed suicide. The 
command then devolved on La Jonquiere, appointed Gov- 
ernor-General of New France as successor to Beauharnois, 
who had held that office for the last twenty years. A 
second storm dispersed the ships, which returned singly to 
France. After the capture of Jonquiere in a second attempt 
to reach Canada, the office of Governor-General devolved on 
La Galissionniere. 

Parliament subsequently reimbursed to tlie colonies the 
expenses of their futile preparations against Canada, amount- 
ing to £235,000, or upward of a million of dollars. 

Indian parties from Canada severely harassed the frontier 
of New England. Even the presence of a British squadron 
on the coast was not without embarrassments. Commodoix' 
Knowles, while lying in Boston harbor, finding himself short 
of men, sent a press-gang one morning, into the town, which 
seized and carried off several of the inhabitants. As soon 
ns this violence became known, an infuriated mob assembled, 



112 Historical and 

and, finding several officers of the squadron on shore, seized 
them as hostages for their imprisoned fellow-townsmen. Sur- 
rounding the town-house, where the General Court was in 
session, they demanded redress. After a vain attempt to 
appease the tumult, Shirley called out the militia; but they 
were very slow to obey. Doubtful of his own safety, he re- 
tired to the castle, whence he wrote to Knowles, representing 
the confusion he had caused, and uro;ino; the discharo'e of the 
persons he had impressed. Knowles offered a body of marines 
to sustain the governor's authority, and threatened to bombard 
the town unless his officers were released. The mob, on the 
other hand, began to question whether the governor's retire- 
ment to the castle did not amount to an abdication. Matters 
assumed a very serious aspect ; and those influential persons 
who had countenanced the tumult, now thought it time to 
interfere for its suppression. The House of Representatives 
resolved to stand by the governor " with their lives and for- 
tunes." The council ordered the release of the officers. The 
inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, shifted ofi:' the 
credit of the riot upon " negroes and persons of vile condi- 
tion." The governor was escorted back by the militia; 
Knowles discharged the greater part of the impressed men, 
and presently departed with his squadron. No allusion was 
made, in the course of this affair, to the statute of Anne, 
prohibiting impressments in America. That act, indeed, ac- 
cording to the opinion of several English crown lawyers, had 
expired with Queen Anne's war. Shirley, in his letters to 
the Board of Trade, on the subject of this "rebellious insur- 
rection," ascribes " the mobbish turn of a town of twenty 
thousand persons" to its constitution, which devolved the 
management of its affairs on " the populace, assembled in 
town meetings." Boston had already attained an amount of 
population at which it remained stationary for the next fifty 
years. (1747.) 

The towns of Suffield, Somers, Enfield, and Woodstock, 
originally settled under Massachusetts grants, and assigned 
to that province in 1713, by the boundary convention with 
Connecticut, finding the rate of taxation in Massachussetts 
enhanced by the late military expenses, applied to Connecti- 
cut to take them into her jurisdiction. They claimed to be 
within the Conuficticut charter. They alleged that the 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 113 

former agreement had never been ratified by the crown, and 
that Connecticut had received no equivalent for her surrender 
of jurisdiction. This application was listened to with favor. 
Some show, indeed, was made of asking the consent of Mas- 
sachusetts ; hut, when that consent was refused, the towns 
were received by Connecticut without it, and to that province 
they have ever since belonged. Massachusetts threatened 
an appeal to the king in council, but hesitated to prosecute 
it, lest she might lose, as in her former controversy with New 
Hampshire, not only the towns in dispute, but other territory 
a^.so. 

Some liberated prisoners from Martinique, a great resort 
for French cruisers, brought a report to Philadelphia that a 
fleet of privateers, knowing the unfortified state of that city, 
and trusting that the Quakers would not fight, intended to 
make a combined expedition up the Delaware. In conse- 
quence of this alarm, fortifications were erected and a mili- 
tary organization adopted in Pennsylvania. The Assembly 
still refused to do anything; but an associated volunteer 
militia, ten thousand strong, was organized and equipped. 
Money was also raised by lottery to erect batteries for the 
defense of the Delaware, toward which the proprietaries con- 
tributed twelve pieces of cannon. " Plain Truth," a little 
pamphlet written by Franklin, greatly contributed to these 
movements. By twenty years of diligent labor as a printer, 
newspaper publisher and editor, Franklin had acquired a 
handsome property ; and, at the age of forty, he now began 
to take an active part in the political affairs of the province, 
being chosen a member of the Assembly, of which, for ten 
years previous, he had acted as clerk. 

A portion of the Quakers were inclinedto justify defensive 
war. Chew, chief justice of Delaware, had been disowned 
by the yearly meeting for avowing that opinion, but it still 
continued to gain ground. The now venerable Logan, who, 
indeed, had never been much of a Quaker, entertained the 
same views ; but increased age and infirmities had withdrawn 
him, for some time, from active participation in affairs. 

The war so inconsiderately begun, through the resolution 

of the British merchants to force a trade with Spanish 

America, after spreading, first to Europe and then to India, 

and adding j$J144,000,000, (X30,000,000,) to the British 

11* 



114 HlSTOElCAL AND 

national debt, was at last brought to a close by tlie peace of 
Aix la Chapelle. (Oct. 8, 1748.) Notwitbstanding a for- 
mer emphatic declaration of the British government, that 
peace never should be made unless the right to navigate the 
Spanish-American seas free from search were conceded, that 
claim, the original pretense for the war, was not even 
alluded to in the treaty. The St. Mary's was fixed as the 
boundary of Florida. Much to the mortification of the peo- 
ple of New England, Cape Breton and the conquered fortress 
of Louisburg were restored to the French, who obtained, in 
addition, the little islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, on the 
south coast of Newfoundland, as stations for their fishermen. 
A new commission was also agreed to for the settlement of 
French and English boundaries in America — a matter left 
unsettled since the treaty of Ryswick. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CommencemeDl if the final struggle between the French and English for 
the country a the great Lakes and the Mississippi — Fourth Intercolo* 
nial War. 

We come now to tlie fourth intercolonial war, in which 
Washington, the first incarnation of Sam in moderate earthly 
mould, makes his appearance upon a stage, the drama of 
which is to fill the eye of the world — a drama, of which he 
is to he the central figure. 

We must again own our ohligation to our admirable Ameri- 
can historian for the narrative of this war. 

Dr. Thomas Walker, of the council of Virginia, penetrating 
through the mountainous south-eastern regions of that pro- 
vince, had reached and crossed the ridge which separates the 
valley of the Tennessee from the head waters of the more 
northerly tributaries of the Ohio. To that ridge he gave 
the name of Cumberland Mountains, after the Duke of Cum- 
berland, of the English blood royal, just then very famous 
by his victory over the Pretender, at Culloden. The name 
of Cumberland was also given to one of the rivers flowing 
down the western slope of that ridge. A more northerly 
stream, called by Walker the Louisa, still preserves its abori- 
ginal appellation of Kentucky, not, however, without con- 
formity to the English idiom in a retraction of the accent 
from the last to the second syllable. The region entered by 
Walker, full of abrupt and barren mountains, attracted little 
attention. The country about the head of the Ohio seemed 
much more invitino;. 

An association of London merchants and Virginia land 
speculators, known as the Ohio Company, obtained in England, 

115 



116 Historical and 

shortly after the peace, a grant of six hundred thousand' 
acres of land on the east bank, of that river, with exclusive 
privileges of Indian traffic — a grant esteemed an encroach- 
ment by the French, who claimed as theirs, by right of 
discovery and occupation, the whole region watered by the 
tributaries of the Mississippi. (1749.) A counter claim, 
indeed, was set up by the English, in the name of the Six 
Nations, recognized by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la 
Chapelle as under British protection, whose empire, it was 
pretended, had formerly been carried by conquest over the 
whole eastern portion of the Mississippi Valley, and the basin,, 
also, of the lower lakes. In maintenance of these pretensions, 
CJolden's " History of the Five Nations" had recently been- 
published. The French, in reply, pointed to their posts, 
many of them of considerable antiquity, more than sixty in 
number, along the great lakes and the waters of the Missis- 
sippi. The missions had declined, but tlie Indian trade con- 
tinued to flourish. At the principal posts were regular- 
garrisons, relieved once in six years. Such of the disbanded 
soldiers as chose to remain, beside a grant of land, received, 
a cow and a calf, a cock and five hens, an ax, a hoe, a gun, 
with powder and shot, grain for seed, and rations for three 
years. Wives were sent out to them from France, or they 
intermarried with the Indians. The boats from the Illinois, 
country, descending annually to New Orleans, carried flour,, 
Indian corn, bacon, both of hog and bear, beef and pork,, 
buffalo robes, hides and tallow. The downward voyage was. 
made in December ; in February the boat returned with 
European goods for consumption and Indian traffic. The- 
Indians north west of the Ohio, including the remains of the 
tribes whom the Iroquois had formerly driven from their 
homes on tbe Ottawa, the Hurons or Wyandots, the Miamies,. 
the Illinois, all rejoiced in the alliance, or recognized the 
authority of the French. As respected the country on the 
upper lakes, the Mississipi, the Illinois, and the Wabash, the 
French title, according to European usage, was complete. 

The country immediately south of Lake Erie, covered with 
dense forests, and with few Indian inhabitants, had hitherto, 
in a great measure, been neglected. But the Count de la 
Galissonniere, shortly after assuming office as governor- 
general, had sent ])e Celeron, with three hundred men, to. 



Kevolutioxary Incidents. 117 

'traverse the country from Detroit east to the mountains, to 
•bury, at the most important points, leaden plates with the 
arms of France engraved, to take possession with a formal 
•process verbal, and to warn the English traders out of the 
'vcountry. 

To secure Nova Scotia, to guard the commerce and fisheries 
•of New England, and to offset the restored fortress of Louis- 
burg, the British government hastened to establish at Che- 
bucto the military colony and fort of Halifax, so called after 
the president of the Board of Trade, who took a great in- 
terest in its establishment. During the next twenty-five 
years this fortress cost Great Britain not less than three 
millions of dollars — a striking instance of the expenses of 
fuodern warlike preparations, equivalent, in fact, to a per- 
petual war. 

Admiral De la Jonquiere having entered upon the govern- 
■ment of New France, his predecessor, De la Galissonniere, 
proceeded to Paris as one of the boundary commissioners 
under the late treaty. In two thick quarto volumes of pro- 
tocols, these commissioners vainly attempted to settle what 
had been meant in the treaty of Utrecht by the " ancient 
limits " of Acadie. The English claimed under that appella- 
tion both shores of the Bay of Fundy — indeed, the whole 
region east of the Penobscot. The French, on the other 
hand, sought to restrict the cession of Acadie to the peninsula 
to which the name of Nova Scotia is at present confined, 
•claiming the north shore of the Bay of Fundy as a part of 
Canada. Nor did they satisfy themselves with protocols 
-only. Troops from Canada established the posts of Gas- 
j)areau and Beau Sejour, at the narrowest part of the isth- 
mus, between the waters of the Bay of Fundy and those of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence — a vicinity in which was planted 
•a considerable body of ancient French colonists still warmly 
■attached to the French interest. Cornwallis, governor of 
Nova Scotia, wrote pressingly to Massachusetts for aid. Not 
strong enough to dislodge these intruders, he caused two 
opposing forts to be built at Beau Bassin and Minas. A third 
post was also established by the French near the mouth of 
'the St. John. (1749.) 

Determined also to strengthen their hold on the disputed 
western region, the French enlarged and strengthened their 



118 HiSTOEICAL AND 

post at Niagara. (1750.) They even obtained leave to 
build a fort and trading house on the borders of the Mohawk 
country. Alarmed for the fidelity of the Six Nations, who 
never had recognized the claim of English dominion, Clinton, 
governor of New York, proposed a new treaty, in which he 
invited all the colonies to participate. (1751.) Only Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina chose to incur the 
expense. The French built vessels of unusual force at Fort 
Frontenac. They entered into friendly relations with those 
bands of Delawares and Shawanese whom the pressure of 
new settlements in Pennsylvania had lately driven from the 
Susquehanna toward the Ohio, and to whom the operations 
of the Ohio Company, in the establishment of a post and trad- 
ing house at Redstone, now Bro^msville, on the Monongahela, 
had given great offense. The Marquis Du Quesne, Jonquiere's 
successor as governor-general, followed up the same policy. 
A band of the Miamies, or Twigties, as the English called 
them, settled at Sandusky, having refused to remove to De- 
troit, and persisting in trade with the English, their village 
was burned. The English traders were seized, and their 
merchandise confiscated. Early the next year, twelve hun- 
dred men from Montreal built a fort at Presque Isle, now 
Erie, on the southern shore of the lake of that name. Cross- 
ing thence to the waters flowing south, they established posts 
at La Boeuf and Venango, the one on French Creek, the other 
on the main stream of the Allegany, which meets the Mo- 
nongahela flowing north, and unites with it to form the Ohio. 
(1753.) 

The Board of Trade reported to the king that, " as the 
French had not the least pretense of right to the territory 
on the Ohio, an important river rising in Pennsylvania and 
running through Virginia, it was matter of wonder what 
such a strange expedition, in time of peace, could mean, un- 
less to complete the object so long in view, of conjoining the 
St. Lawrence with the Mississippi." Lord Holderness, suc- 
cessor to the Duke of Bedford, as Secretary of State, dispatched 
orders to the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to 
repel force by force, " whenever the French were found with- 
in the undoubted limits of their provinces." (1749.) After 
remaining for three years in the hands of Thomas Lee and 
Lewis Burwell, successive presidents of the council, the- 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 119 

government of Virginia had passed to Robert Dinwiddie, as 
lieutenant-governor, a Scotsman of ability, surveyor-general 
of the colonial customs, and previously a counselor, but not pos- 
sessed of that suavity of manners for which Gouch, his pre- 
decessor, had been distinguished. Observing with anxiety 
and alarm the movements of the French, Dinwiddie held a 
treaty with the Indian bands on the Monongahela, from whom 
he purchased permission to build a fort at the junction of that 
river with the Alleghany. He resolved, also to send a mes- 
sage to the nearest French post, to demand explanations, and 
the release and indemnification of the captured traders. As 
bearer of this message he selected George Washington, a 
native of Westmoreland county, on the Potomac, where his 
ancestors had been planters for three generations. Tlio pa- 
ternal inheritance, by the law of primogeniture, having 
passed to his eldest brother, the young Washington, a major 
in the militia, followed the lucrative but laborious profession 
of a land surveyor in the Northern Neck, now the property 
of Lord Fairfax. Though not yet twenty-two, already he 
gave evidence of that rarest of combinations, a sound judg- 
ment, with courage, enterprise, and capacity for action. 

After a dangerous winter's journey of four hundred miles, 
with only four or five attendants, the greater part of the 
way through uninhabited forests, Washington reached the 
French post at Venango, where he was received with charac- 
teristic politeness. Joncaire, the commander, promised to 
transmit Dinwiddle's message to his superiors in Canada, 
under whose orders he acted ; but the French officers, over 
their cups, made no secret to Washington of the intention 
entertained by the French government permanently to occa- 
py all that country. (1753.) 

During Washington's absence, Dinwiddie applied to the 
Assembly for funds ; but he found that Body in a very bad 
humor. With the consent of the Board of Trade, a fee had 
recently been imposed on the issue of patents for lands — a 
practice long established in other colonies, but hitherto un- 
known in Virginia. The House of Burgesses paid no atten- 
tion to Dinwiddle's complaint of French encroachments and 
call for money. Wholly engrossed by the affair of the ob- 
noxious fee, they resolved that whosoever paid it, ought to be 
regarded as betraying the rights of the people ; and they 



120 HiSTORICiVIi AND 

sent to England, as bearer of tlieir complaints, Peyton Ran- 
dolph, attorney-general of the province, twenty years after 
president of the Continental Congress, to whom they voted 
a salary of X2,000, out of the provineial funds in the hands 
of the speaker. 

Notwithstanding this disappointment, Dinwiddie enlisted a 
aptain's command, and sent them to build a fort at the junc- 
tion of the Alleghany and the Monongahela. The western 
boundary of Pennsylvania was not yet run. It was uncer- 
tain whether the head of the Ohio fell within that province ; 
if not, it was claimed as appertaining to Virginia. 

As soldiers could not be supported without money, Din- 
widdie called on the neighboring colonies for aid, and present- 
ly again summoned the Virginia Assembly. Washington 
had now returned. The designs of the French were obvi- 
ous, and the Assembly granted .£10,000 toward the defense 
of the frontiers. A committee of the burgesses was ap- 
pointed to act in concert with the governor in the expenditure 
of this money — an "encroachment on the prerogative," to 
which, from necessity, Dinwiddie reluctantly submitted. 

Urged by Governor Hamilton to take measures to with- 
stand the intrusions of the French, the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania offered supplies in paper money. But to this, 
Hamilton, by his instructions, could not assent, at least not 
without a suspending clause of reference to England, to 
which the Assembly would not agree. (1754.) 

Again urged to co-operate with Virginia, the Assembly 
passed a new bill for paper money supplies, which the gover- 
nor again rejected. Some members of the Assembly — and 
the same was presently the case in New York- — expressed 
doubts if the crown actually had any claim to the territory 
on which the French were said to be encroaching. Governor 
Glen, of South Carolina, doubted too. But any such doubts 
were regarded by the zealous Dinwiddie as little short of 
treason. In New York also, as well as in Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, internal disputes distracted attention from the 
designs of the French. Clinton had resigned, wearied out 
by ineffectual struggles against Delancey, who had been 
joined, also, by Colden, and whom the united influence of 
Alexander, Smith, and Johnson, lately raised to the council, 
was not sufficient to overmatch. His successor, Sir Danvers 



Revolutionary Incidents. 121 

Osborne, came from England charged to rebuke the Assem- 
bly, and to re-establish the executive authority. BQs friends 
had obtained for him this appointment, hoping that business 
and a change of scene might enable him to throw off a fit 
of melancholy under which he was laboring. But the hope- 
lessness of the task he had assumed so aggravated his dis- 
order, that, within five days after his arrival, he committed 
suicide. 

It fell to Delancey, as lieutenant-governor, to which dignity 
he had just been raised, to lay Osborne's instructions before 
the Assembly. An address to the king and a representation 
to the Board of Trade, indignantly denied the imputations 
of turbulence and disloyalty ; but all the arts of Delancey 
were exhausted in vain, to move the Assembly from their 
policy of annual votes. The most he could obtain was, that 
money once voted, should be drawn out of the treasury on 
the order of the governor and council, and a promise not to 
interfere with executive matters. 

The government of Maryland had recently been conferred 
on Horatio Sharpe, a military officer ; but a quarrel about 
supplies, similar to that in Pennsylvania, prevented the aid 
which Dinwiddle had asked. 

North Carolina alone, of all the colonies applied to, re- 
sponded promptly, by voting a regiment of four hundred and 
fifty men. The temporary administration of that province 
was held by Michael Eowan, as president of the council, who 
availed himself of this opportunity to consent to a new issue 
of paper money. But these North Carolina troops proved of 
little use. By the time they reached Winchester, in Vir- 
ginia, the greater part had disbanded on some doubts as to 
their pay, the appropriation for that purpose being already 
exhausted. 

A regiment of six hundred men had been enlisted in Vir- 
ginia, of which Frye was appointed Colonel, and Washington 
lieutenant-colonel. To encourage enlistment, Dinwiddie 
promised two hundred thousand acres of land to be divided 
among the officers and soldiers. Two independent companies 
from New York, and another from South Carolina were or- 
dered to Virginia to assist in the operations against the 

French. 

11 



122 Historical and 

The Virginia troops, on their march to the frontier, 
encountered abundance of difficulties. Very little disposition 
was shown to facilitate their progress. It was only by 
impressment that means could be obtained to transport the 
baggage and stores. By slow and toilsome steps, the troops 
made their way to Will's Creek, on the Potomac, where they 
were met by alarming intelligence. The French, under 
Coutrecoeur, had descended in force from Venango, and, 
having sent off Dinwiddie's soldiers, who were building a 
fort at the head of the Ohio, they had themselves seized that 
important spot and commenced a fort, which they called Du 
Quesne, after the Governor-General. 

A detachment under Washington hastily sent forward to 

reconnoiter, just before reaching Eedstone, at a place called 

the Great Meadows, encountered a French party, which 

: Washington attacked by surprise, and whose commander, 

Jumonville, was killed — the first blood shed in this war. 

By Frye's death, the chief command devolved on Washing- 
ton. He was soon joined by the rest of the troops, and, 
having erected a stockade at the Great Meadows, called Fort 
Necessity, pushed on toward Du Quesne. The approach of a 
much superior force under M. de Villier, brother of Jumon- 
ville, obliged him to fall back to Fort Necessity. His troops 
were fatigued, discouraged, and short of provisions ; and, 
after a day's fighting, he agreed to give up the fort, and 
to retire with his arms and baggage. Washington did not 
know French ; his interpreter, a Dutchman, was ignorant or 
treacherous, and the articles of capitulation were made to 
contain an express acknowledgment of the " assassination " 
of Jumonville. Having retired to Will's Creek, Washington's 
troops assisted in the erection of Fort Cumberland, which now 
became the westernmost English post. 

At the same time, with his orders to Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania, Holderness had addressed a circular letter to all the 
colonies, proposing a convention at Albany of committees 
from the several colonial Assemblies, to renew the treaty 
with the Six Nations, whose friendship at this crisis, was of 
great importance. Agreeably to his" recommendation. New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New England 
colonies, appointed committees. While Washington was 
operating toward the Monongahela, this convention met. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 123 

find after carefully settling the question of precedence, 
organized itself, with Delancey, of New York, as presiding 
ofiian'. The ill feeling between the Governor and the 
Assembly of Virginia, prevented any representation from 
that colony. 

Having returned from his unavailing mission to Paris, 
Shirley had resumed the government of Massachusetts. But, 
what greatly damaged his popularity among a people so 
hostile to the French, and to all popish connections, he 
brought with him from Paris a young wife, a French woman 
and a Catholic. Perceiving a war to be approaching, he 
summoned the Eastern Indians to renew their treaties. But 
they eagerly availed themselves of this new opportunity to 
raise the hatchet. For the sixth time within eighty years, 
luckily destined to be the last, the frontiers of New England 
again suffered. The General Court readily voted money to 
repel these hostilities ; and, as an offset to a reported French 
fort near the head of the Chaudi^re — while Washington was 
fortifying at Will's Creek — Shirley built Fort Halifax, high 
up the Kennebec. Hardly had the Governor returned from 
the eastward, when Hoosick and Stockbridge, on the western 
frontier, were assailed by an Indian war party. These 
assailants belonged to a tribe largely composed of descend- 
ants of refugees driven from Massachusetts in the time of 
Philip's war. As a protection to that frontier, the Stock- 
bridge tribe was taken into pay. 

Maryland and New York voted in aid of Virginia, the one 
£6000, the other .£5000 ; £10,000 were also received from 
England, whence came a commission to Sharpe, governor of 
Maryland, as Commander-in-Chief of the forces to be em- 
ployed against the French. Warm disputes about rank and 
precedence had already arisen between the Virgina regi- 
mental officers and the captains of the independent com 
panies. To stop this dispute, Dinwiddie had dispensed with 
field officers, and broken the Virginia regiment into separate 
companies — an arrangement which had driven Washington 
from the service. 

The pending territorial disputes led about this time to the 
publication of the maps of Evans and Mitchell, the first 
embracing the middle colonies, the other the whole of North 
America. The first edition of Mitchell's map had appeared 



124 Historical and 

in 1749 ; but a new edition was now published, with improve' 

ments. The British North American colonies stretched a 

thousand miles along the Atlantic, but their extent inland 

was very limited. According to a return made to the Board 

of Trade, the population amounted to — 

Whites, 1,192,896 

Blacks 292,738 

Total 1,485,634 

New France, on the other hand, had scarcely a hundred 
thousand people, scattered over a vastly wider space, from 
Cape Breton to the mouth of the Mississippi, but mainly 
collected on the St. Lawrence, betweeen Quebec and Mon- 
treal. The remote situation of their settlements, separated 
from the English by uninhabited forests and unexplored 
mountains, the very dispersion of their force over so vast a 
space, gave the French a certain security, while the whole 
western frontier of the English, from Maine to Georgia, lay 
exposed to attack by the Indian tribes, disgusted by constant 
encroachments on their hunting-grounds, and ripe and ready 
for a troublesome and cruel warfare. There were kept in 
Canada, for the defense of the province, thirty-three com- 
panies of regular troops, of about fifty men each. 

The loud complaints of the English embassador at Paris 
were met by protestations esteemed unmeaning or insincere. 
A struggle was evidently impending in America, greater 
than had yet been known. In anticipation of approaching 
hostilities, a general order gave to all officers commissioned 
by the king or the commander-in-chief, precedence over such 
as had only colonial commissions — an order which created 
great disgust and occasioned much trouble in America. New 
clauses introduced into the annual Mutiny Act, subjected the 
colonial soldiers, when acting in conjunction with regular 
troops, to the rigid rules of the regular service, and required 
the colonial Assemblies to provide quarters and certain enu- 
merated supplies for the regular troops within their jurisdic- 
tion. General Braddock, appointed commander-in-chief, was 
dispatched to the Chesapeake with two British regiments. 
Two regiments of a thousand men each, to be paid by the 
crown, one Pepperell's, the other Shirley's, were ordered to 
be raised and officered in New England. The colonies were 



Revolutionary Incidents. 126 

also to be called upon for their respective quotas of colonial 
levies. As the Quaker Legislature of Pennsylvania had 
scruples about raising troops, three thousand men were to 
be enlisted in that province by authority of the crown. 

At Alexandria, on the Potomac, Braddock met a conven- 
tion of colonial governors, with whom he settled the plan of 
the campaign. He undertook to march in person against 
Fort Du Quesne, and to expel tlie French from the Ohio. 
Shirley, lately promoted to the rank of major-general, was 
to march against Niagara. The capture of Crown Point, 
already planned by Shirley, and resolved upon by Massachu- 
setts, was intrusted to Johnson, whose ascendency over the 
Six Nations had lately procured for him a royal appointment 
as general superintendent of Indian affairs, with the sole 
power of making treaties. There was already on foot a 
fourth expedition, concerted by Shirley and Lawrence, gov- 
ernor of Nova Scotia, for the capture of the French posts 
near the head of the Bay of F'undy, and the expulsion of the 
French from that province. 

In anticipation of Braddock's arrival, application for troops 
had already been made by the several governors. Massachu- 
setts responded with zeal, and a levy was ordered of three 
thousand two hundred men. The exportation of provisions, 
except to other British colonies, and any correspondence with 
the French were prohibited ; but it required a pretty watch- 
fiil eye to put a stop to this commerce. The treasurer was 
authorized to borrow £50,000, (;^166,666,) on the credit of 
taxes to produce that sum within two years. This method 
of providing funds proved successful, and was adhered to 
during the war. 

The Assembly of New York voted .£45,000 in paper bills, 
for erecting fortifications and enlisting eight hundred men. 
' They ordered barracks to be built ; and though they made no 
appropriation for supplying the other articles required by the 
Mutiny Act, their unexpected promptitude and liberality 
were highly applauded by the Board of Trade. The New 
Jersey Assembly, beside providing for the subsistence of the 
king's troops, as the Mutiny Act required, ordered five hun- 
dred men to be raised, and to pay the expense, they raised 
£70,000 of new paper. 
11* 



126 HiSTOKICAL AXD 

If the zeal and energy of tlie six northern colonies sur- 
passed the expectations of the Board of Trade, the aid 
furnished by the more southern provinces was comparatively 
trifling. (1754.) 

The Assembly of Maryland voted toward Braddock's expe- 
dition .£10,000 in paper, to be redeemed out of fines and 
forfeitures. But the fines and forfeitures were claimed as a 
part of the personal revenue of the proprietary ; the council 
non-concurred, and the appropriation thus fell to the ground. 

After a hearing in England, the Virginia dispute about 
fees for land patents had been compromised, and, "because 
the times required harmony and confidence," Dinwiddie had 
been directed to restore Eandolph to his former office of 
attorney-general. But feeling on this subject did not imme- 
diately subside, a dispute being still kept up about Kandolph's 
payment as agent. The Assembly voted, however, <£20,000 
toward the support of the colonial levies ; and, in anticipation 
of the taxes imposed to meet it, authorized the issue of trea- 
>-ury notes — the first paper money of Virginia. 

As further aid toward "repelling the encroachments of the 
French," North Carolina voted X8,000. The government 
of that pi'ovince had recently been given to Arthur Dobbs ; 
and, thankful for the appointment of a ruler of " known 
abilities and good character " — for so the Assembly described 
him — they promised to "forget former contests." But the 
new governor, anxious to enhance his authority, soon became 
involved in disputes with the Assembly, whose speaker, Star- 
kie, he stigmatized "as a Eepublican of puritanic humility, 
but uubounded ambition." Starkie was treasurer as well as 
speaker. He could lend money to the delegates; and his 
influence far exceeded that of a governor " who had not the 
power of rewarding his friends." (1755.) 

A French squadron destined for America, was known to be 
fitting out at Brest, on board of which Dieskau presently em- 
barked with four thousand troops. To intercept this squadron, 
Boscawen was sent with a British fleet to cruise on the banks 
of Newfoundland. Suspecting some such scheme, most of the 
French ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Straits 
of Belle Isle, whence they proceeded to Quebec. Others 
passing Boscawen in the fog, landed a thousand men at 



Revolutionary Incidents. 127 

Louisburg. Two only of the French transports, with eight 
companies on hoard, fell into the hands of the English. 

In consequence of this attack, the French embassador was 
recalled from London. The English ministry retorted by 
issuing letters of marque and reprisal, under which a great 
number of valuable merchant vessels and not less than seven 
thousand French seamen were seized. The French com- 
plained loudly as well of these aggressions as of Washington's 
attack on Jumonville. The English, in excuse, charged the 
French with invading Virginia and Nova Scotia. Hostilities 
were already flagrant, but neither party issued as yet a 
declaration of war. 

While Boscawen was still cruising off Newfoundland, watch- 
ing for the French fleet, three thousand men embarked at 
Boston for the Bay of Fundy. These troops, forming a regi- 
ment of two battalions, were led by John Winslow, a great 
grand-son of Edward Winslow, one of the patriarchs of Ply- 
mouth colony, and grandson of the commander of the New 
England forces at the great swamp fight in Philip's war ; him- 
self, during the previous war, a captain in Vernon's West India 
expedition. It was principally through his popularity and in- 
fluence that the enlistments had been procured. He was a 
major-general in the Massachusetts militia, but was persuaded 
on this occasion to accept a commission as lieutenant-colonel. 
Arrived at Chignecto, at the head of the bay, Winslow's forces 
were joined by Colonel Moncton, with three hundred British 
regulars, the garrison of the British posts in that neighbor- 
hood, to whom also, Shirley had given a Massachusetts commis- 
sion, with a rank higher than Winslow's. Under his command, 
they marched against the French forts recently established on 
the two shores of the isthmus at Beau Sejour and Gaspareau. 
Taken by surprise, these forts made but a trifling resistance. 
The fort at the mouth of the St. John's, on the approach of an 
English detachment, was abandoned and burned. The ex- 
pulsion of the French troops from the Bay of Fundy had 
been accomplished without difficulty. But what was to be 
done with the French colonists, amounting now to some twelve 
or fifteen thousand, settled principally in three detached bodies 
about Beau Bassin, "the beautiful basin" of Chignecto, on 
the no less beautiful basin of Minas — the two divisions intc 



128 Historical and 

which the upper Bay of Fundy divides — and on the fertile 
hanks of the basin or river of Annapolis ? 

It was thirty years since Nova Scotia had become a British 
province ; but these settlers, who had more than doubled their 
number in the interval, continued still French, not in lan- 
guage, religion and manners only, but also in attachments, 
receiving their priests from Canada, and always ready to 
favor any movement that tended to restore them to their 
ancient allegiance. By the terms granted when tlie British 
authorities took possession of the province, they were excused 
from any obligation to bear arms against France, and were 
thence known as "French neutrals." Biit they did not act up 
even to that character. Three hundred of their young men 
had been taken in arms at the surrender of Beau Sejour, 
and one of their priests had been actively employed as a 
French agent. To curb these hostile people would require 
several expensive garrisons. If ordered to quit the country, 
and allowed to go where they pleased, they would retire to 
Canada and Cape Breton, and strengthen the enemy there. 
To devise some scheme adequate to this emergency, Law- 
rence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, consulted with 
Boscawen and Mostyn, commanders of the British fleet, which 
had just arrived on the coast after its cruise to intercept 
Dieskau. These military men took counsel with Belcher, 
chief justice of the province, a son of the former governor of 
Massachusetts. The result was, notwithstanding an express 
provision in the capitulation of Beau Sejour that the neigh- 
boring inhabitants should not be disturbed, a plan for treach- 
erously kidnapping the Acadiens, and transporting them to 
the various British provinces. The capitulation of Beau 
Sejour did not apply to the settlements of Minas and Annap- 
olis ; but the people there strenuously denied any complicity 
with the French invaders, which seems, indeed, in their case, 
to have been rather suspected than proved. (1755.) 

The Acadiens had preserved all the gay simplicity of 
incient French rural manners. Never was there a people 
more attached to their homes, or who had more reasons for 
being so. They lived in rustic plenty, surrounded by herds 
of cattle and sheep, and drawing abundant crops from the 
rich levels, fine sediment deposited by the tides on the borders 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 129 

of the basins, and wliicli their industry had diked in from the 
gea. Knowing how much was to be dreaded from despair, the 
ruthless design against them was kept a profound secret. As- 
sembled under various false pretenses at their parish churches, 
they were surrounded with troops, made prisoners, and hur- 
ried on board the ships assigned for their transportation! 
Wives separated from their husbands in the confusion of 
embarking, and children from their parents, were carried 
off to distant colonies, never again to see each other ! Their 
lands, crops, cattle, everything except household furniture, 
which they could not carry away, and money, of which they 
had little or none, were declared forfeit to the crown ; and, 
to insure the starvation of such as fled to the woods, and so 
to compel their surrender, the growing crops were destroyed, ' 
and the barns and houses burned, with all their contents ! 

More than a thousand of these unfortunate exiles, carried 
to Massachusetts, long remained a burden on the public, too 
broken-hearted and disconsolate to do much for themselves. 
Their misery excited pity, in s^.ite of the angry feeling 
created by protracted hostilities ; but siicli was still, in New 
England, the horror of Popery, that they were not allowed to 
console themselves by the celel ation of the mass. 

To every British North American colony was sent a quota 
of these miserable people, a burden on the public charity, for 
which the Assemblies were called on to provide. It was an 
object to get rid of them as speedil} as possible. Some made 
their way to France, others to 'Canada, St. Domingo, and 
Louisiana, the expenses of their transport being paid in many 
instances by the colonial Assemblie>^- To such of these fugi- 
tives as escaped to Louisiana, lan(!> were assigned in that 
district, above New Orleans, still Icnown as the Acadien coast. 
The four hundred sent to Georgi;). built rude boats, and 
coasted northward, hoping to reach the Bay of Fundy. Few, 
however, were so lucky as to regain n French home and the 
ministrations of the Catholic faith. The greater part, spirit- 
less, careless, and helpless, died in exile, victims of disap- 
pointment and despair. Such was the result of that rivalry 
of a century and a half between ti ^ English of New Eng- 
land and the French of Acadie. Sucl? is religious and national 
antipathy. May we not hope that luitreds so atrocious are 
fast dying out? 



130 Historical and 

The authors of this cruel scheme had been confirmed in 
their purpose by a repulse which the English had, meanwhile, 
sustained in the attempt to drive the French from the Ohio. 
Braddock's regulars had been landed at Alexandria, a small 
town lately sprung up near the liead of ship navigation on 
the Potomac. But great difficulties were encountered in 
obtaining provisions and means of transportation. The con- 
tractors peqietually failed in their engagements, and Brad- 
dock and his quarter-master, both men of violent tempers, 
gave vent, with very little reserve, to expressions of disgust 
and contempt for the colonists. With great difficulty the 
troops reached Cumberland, where they came to a full stop. 
Franklin, in his character of deputy postmaster, having vis- 
ited the camp to arrange a post communication with Phila- 
delphia, by assuming responsibilities on his own credit, which 
left him, in the end, a considerable loser, obtained wagons 
and horses among the Pennsylvania farmers, which enabled 
the army once more to move forward. The. regulars had 
been joined by the detach i companies of the Virginia levies, 
and the whole force now amounted to twenty-two hundred 
men. Washington had been invited by Braddock to attend 
him as an aid-de-camj). 

From Cumberland to Pu-^dstone was a distance of fifty 
miles,, over several steep auu rough ridges of the Alleghany 
Mountains. Only Indian paths yet traversed this difficult 
and uninhabited countr}-, *^]u-ougli which the troops had to 
cut a road for the wagons and artillery. Vexed at this delay, 
Braddock left Colonel Dunbar to bring up the heavy bag- 
gage, and pushed on in advance, at the head of thirteen 
hundred picked men. He was warned of the danger to 
which the nature of the country and the character of the 
enemy exposed him, and was advised to place the provincials 
in his front, to scour the woods. But he held both the enemy 
and the provincials in too much contempt to give attention to 
this advice. He had gaiiied forty miles on Dunbar, and was 
now within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, when, about noon, 
just after fording the .Monougahela a second time, his van, 
while ascending the ris.ino' bank of the river, was fired upon 
by an invisible enemy. The assai'lants, some two hundred 
Freuch and six hundred Indians, with only thirteen French 
officers, and none above the rank of captain, were posted in 



Eevolutionary Txcidexts. 131 

^11 open wood, in some shallow undulations just deep enough 
to conceal them as they lay flat on the ground among the 
high grass. Braddock's main body hastened up with the 
artillery, but the unseen enemy continued to pour in a deadly 
Are ; and the British troops, seized with sudden panic, were 
thrown at once into hopeless confusion. In vain the general 
exerted himself to restore order. He had five horses shot 
under him, and soon fell mortally wounded. Not less than 
sixty officers, chosen marks for the enemy's bullets, were 
killed or disabled; among the latter, Horatio Gates, captain 
of one of the independent companies, and twenty years after- 
ward a general in the revolutionary army. The provincials, 
acquainted with the Indian method of fighting, alone made 
any effectual resistance. Washington, still weak from the 
effects of a recent fever, put himself at their head. They 
were the last to leave the field, and partially covered the 
flight of the discomfited regulars. Delay was thus given 
for bringing off" the wounded, but the baggage and artiller}- 
were abandoned to the enemy. The English lost, in killed 
and disabled, some seven hundred men, or more than half 
their force engaged. The loss of the French and Indians did 
not exceed sixty. The victors, intent on the spoils of the 
field, pursued only a few miles, but the flying troops did not 
rally till they reached the camp of Dunbar, who abandoned 
the expedition, and, having destroyed all the stores not 
needed for immediate use, retired first to Cumberland and 
then to Philadelphia. 

Shirley meanwhile, with his own and Pepperell's regiment, 
lately enlisted in New England, and some irrregulars and 
Indians drawn from New York, was on the march from 
Albany to Oswego, where he proposed to embark for Niag- 
ara. He had rivers to clear, boats to build, roads to cut, 
and provisions and munitions to transport through the wild- 
erness. The army reached Oswego at last, but seriously 
disabled by sickness, and discouraged by the news of Brad- 
dock's defeat, whose death raised Shirley to the command-in- 
cliief, in which he was presently confirmed by an appointment 
from England. Two strong forts were built at Oswego, 
vessels were prepared, and great preparations were made for 
proceeding against Niagara. 



132 Historical and 

The Assembly of New York had already voted j6800Q 
toward the enlistment, in Connecticut, of two thousand addi- 
tional men, for the Niagara and Crown Point expeditions. 
After hearing of Braddock's defeat, they raised four hundred 
men of their own, in addition to the eight hundred already in 
the field. Delancey, though presently superceded in the 
government by Sir Charles Hardy, a Naval oflficer, still 
retained a principal influence in the administration. 

The troops destined for the Crown Point expedition, some 
six thousand men, drawn from New England, New Jersey, 
and New York, advancing under General Lyman, of Connec- 
ticut, to the head of boat navigation on the Hudson, built 
there Fort Lyman, called afterward Fort Edward. Johnson 
joined them with the stores and artillery, assumed the com- 
mand, and advanced to Lake George. Dieskau, meanwhile, 
had ascended Lake Champlain with two thousand men from 
Montreal, had landed at South Bay, the southern extremity 
of that lake, and had pushed on toward Fort Lyman. When 
quite near it, dreading its artillery, or for some other cause, 
he suddenly changed his plan, and marched to attack Johnson. 
Informed of his approach, Johnson sent forward Colonel 
Williams with a thousand Massachusetts troops, and a body 
of Mohawk Indians under Hendrick, a famous chief. In a 
narrow and rugged defile, about three miles from the camp, 
this detachment encountered the whole of Dieskau's army. 
Williams and Hendrick were slain, and their force driven 
back in confusion. Williams had secured himself a better 
monument than any victory could give. While passing 
through Albany he had made his will, leaving certain pro- 
perty to found a free school for Western Massachusetts, since 
grown into " Williams' College." 

Following up the defeated troops, Dieskau assaulted John- 
son's camp. It was protected on both sides by impassable 
swamps, and in front by a breastwork of fallen trees. Some 
cannon just brought up from Fort Edward, opened an unex- 
pected fire, and the assailants were presently driven back in 
confusion. Dieskau, mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. 
The remains of his army fled to Crown Point. The French 
loss was estimated at a thousand men, the English at three 
hundred. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 133 

A party of New Hampshire troops on tlieir way from Fort 
Lyman, encountered the baggage of Dieskau's army, which 
they captured after overpowering the guard. These three 
actions, fought the same day, and known as the battle of 
Lake George, were proclaimed through the colonies as a great 
victory, for which Johnson was rewarded with the honors of 
knighthood, and a parliamentary grant of X5,000. As John- 
son had been wounded early in the action, the Connecticut 
troops claimed the honor of the victory for General Lyman, 
second in command. 

One of the Massachusetts regiments distinguished in this 
action was commanded by Timothy Ruggles, afterward pres- 
ident of the Stamp Act Congress. The personal history of 
Ruggles serves to illustrate the simple manner of those 
times. Son of a minister, he had been educated at Cam- 
bridge, had studied law, and commenced the practice of it in 
Plymouth and Barnstable, with good success. Marrying the 
widow of a rich inn-keeper, he added tavern-keeping to his 
business as a lawyer. When the war broke out, he entered 
into the military line, and being a man of energy and sense, 
he served with distinction for the next five years. Israel 
Putnam, afterward a revolutionary major-general, now a cap- 
tain in one of the Connecticut regiments, had already distin- 
guished himself as a partisan officer, in which capacity he 
served during the war. 

Though re-enforced from Massachusetts, which colony, on 
hearing of Braddock's defeat, had voted two thousand addi- 
tional troops, Johnson made no attempt on Crown Point. 
He even allowed the French to establish and fortify them- 
selves at Ticonderoga. Under the superintendence of Gridley, 
who acted as engineer. Fort William Henry was built, near 
the late field of battle, at tlie head of Lake George. The 
New Englanders accused Johnson of incapacity; but he 
.alleged the want of provisions and means of transportation 
suflScieut to justify active operations. 

After having made great preparations at Oswego, heavy 
rains delayed Shirley's embarkation ; and finally, owing to 
the approach of winter and the scanty supply of provisions, 
the enterprise against Niagara was given over for the season. 
Shirley left seven hundred men in garrison at Oswego; but 
all the colonial levies, except six hundred men to garrison 
12 



134 Historical and 

Fort William Henry, and sucli troops as Massachusetts kept 
lip at the eastward for frontier defense, were marched home 
and disbanded. 

The frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 
uncovered by Dunbar's precipitate retreat, were exposed to 
war-parties of Indians in the French interest. The discon- 
tented Delawares on the northern borders of Pennsylvania, 
and the Shawanese in the interior, availed themselves of this 
crisis to commence hostilities. Governor Morris called loudly 
^or men and money to defend the frontiers. The inhabitants 
of Philadelphia, in an address to the Assembly, urged a lib- 
eral grant. Dropping their favorite paper money project, 
the Assembly voted a tax of X50,000, to be levied on real 
and personal estates, " not excepting those of the proprieta- 
ries " — a clause, as they well knew, as contrary as the paper 
money, to the governor's instructions. If that clause might 
be omitted, some gentlemen of Philadelphia, in the proprie- 
tary interest, offered to contribute ^5,000, the estimated 
amount of the tax on the proprietary estates. But the As- 
sembly wishing to improve this emergency to establish a pre- 
cedent, dexterously evaded the offer; the governor stood out, 
and the bill fell to the ground. Dunbar's regulars advancing 
from Philadelphia toward the frontier, afforded a temporary 
protection. 

To furnish funds for defending their frontiers, the Assem- 
bly of Virginia voted X40,000 in taxes, in anticipation of 
which a new batch of treasury notes was issued. To Wash- 
ington, for his gallant behavior at Braddock's defeat, X300 
were voted, with lesser gratuities to several of the officers, 
and ,£5 to each of the surviving Virginia privates who re- 
mained in tlie service. Among the officers thus distinguished 
were Captain Adam Stephen, and Surgeon Hector Craig, the 
one afterward a major-general, the other at the head of the 
medical department of the revolutionary army. The Vir- 
ginia regiment was reorganized, and Washington again placed 
at its head, with Stephen for lieutenant-colonel, undertook 
the difficult task of repelling the Indians, whose ravages now 
extended as far as Winchester. The Assembly of Maryland 
granted £6,000 for the defense of the province, and an ad- 
ditional sum was raised by voluntary subscription. A body 
of militia presently took the field under Governor Sharpe. 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 135 

A violent dispute arose between Sliarpe and Dinwidie, as to 
the command of Fort Cumberland. The pretensions of Dag- 
worthy, in the Maryland service, who had formerly borne a 
royal commission, and who claimed precedence on that account 
over all officers with merely colonial commissions, was another 
source of trouble ; and Washington presently found himself 
obliged to make a winter's visit to Boston, to obtain from 
Shirley definite orders on that point. 

The Quakers were still a majority in the Pennsylvania 
Assembly, but they could no longer resist the loud cry to 
arms, raised in Philadelphia and re-echoed from the frontiers, 
occasioned by Indian inroads on the Juniata settlements. 
The proprietary party made every effort, and not without 
success, to stir up the public discontent. After a sharp ptrug- 
gle with the governor, in consideration of a voluntary con- 
tribution by the proprietaries of .£5,000, the Assembly 
consented to levy a tax of X55,000, from which the proprie- 
tary estates were exempted. The expenditure of this money 
was specially intrusted to a joint committee of seven, of whom 
a majority were members of Assembly, which committee be- 
came the chief managers of the war now formally declared 
against the Dclawares and Shawanese. Thus driven, for the 
first time, to open participation in war, some of the Quaker 
members resigned their seats in the Assembly. Others de- 
clined a re-election. The rule of the Quakers came to an 
end. But this change, contrary to the hopes and expecta- 
tions of the proprietaries, did not reconcile the quarrel 
between them and the Assembly. That body insisted as 
strenuously as ever on their right to tax the proprietary 
estates. 

Toward the close of the year, Shirley met a convention of 
provincial governors at New York, to arrange plans for the 
next campaign. Expeditions against Port Du Quesne, 
Niagara, and Crown Point were agreed upon, for which twen- 
ty thousand men would be necessary. New York voted 
seventeen hundred men as her quota, and issued X40,000 in 
paper, to support them. But the New England colonies, ex- 
hausted by their late efforts, and disgusted by their ill-success, 
did not respond to the expectations of Shirley. Peebly sup- 
ported in his own province, the commander-in-chief was 
fiercely assailed by Johnson and Delancey, who ascribed to his 



i36 Historical and 

alleged want of military experience, the ill success of the 
late expeditions against Niagara and Crown Point, and whose 
intrigues presently procured his recall. 

Acts were passed in Pennsylvania for enrolling a volunteer 
militia and for raising rangers by enlistment. Having been 
very active in procuring these enactments, Franklin under- 
took the military command of the frontier, with the rank of 
colonel, and, under his directions, along the base of the Kit- 
taniny Mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland line, 
a chain of forts and block-houses was erected, commanding 
the most important passes, and inclosing the greater part of 
the settlements. This volunteer militia, however, was far 
from satisfactory to the proprietary party, who sought by 
every means to obstruct it, and the act, at the request of the 
proprietaries, was presently set aside by a royal veto. On 
the other hand, some of the sturdier Quakers protested 
against a tax for war purposes, and advised a passive resist- 
ance to its collection. William Denny, a military officer, was 
sent out to supersede Morris, as deputy-governor. (1756.) 

The proprietary of Maryland having relinquished his claim 
to the fines and forfeitures, the Assembly granted .£40,000 
principally in paper money. A provision that papists shoula 
pay double taxes toward the redemption of this paper, evinced 
the still existing force of sectarian hostility. The lands and 
manors of the proprietary were also included among the ar- 
ticles taxed. Fort Cumberland was too far in advance to h& 
of any use, and a new fort, called Frederick, was built at 
that bend of the Potomac which approaches nearest the 
Pennsylvania line. 

Fifteen hundred volunteers and drafted militia, commanded 
by Washington, and scattered in forts, afforded but an imper- 
fect defense to the suffering inhabitants of the Virginia Val- 
ley, many of whom abandoned their farms. In apology for 
the small number of these forces, Dinwiddie wrote to the 
Board of Trade, "We dare not part with any of our white 
men to any distance, as we must have a watchful eye over 
our negro slaves." Dumas, the conqueror of Braddock, in 
command at Fort Du Quesne, and De Celeron at Detroit, 
were constantly stimulating the Indians. Du Quesne having 
returned to the marine service, the Marquis de Vaudreuil de 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 137 

Cavagiial had been appointed to succeed him as governor of 
New France. 

The French had all along offered to treat ; but they de- 
manded, as a preliminary, the restoration of the merchant 
ships seized by the English — an act which they complained 
of as piratical. When this was refused, they commissioned 
privateers, and threatened to invade England with a fleet 
and army collected at Brest. To guard against this threat- 
ened invasion, a body of Hessian and Hanoverian troops was 
received into England. To excite the colonists to fresh ef- 
forts, ,£115,000 were voted as a reimbursement to the prov- 
inces concerned in Dieskau's defeat. Provision was also made 
for enlisting a royal American regiment, to be composed of 
four battalions of a thousand men each. A clause, afterward 
somewhat modified, authorizing the appointment of seventy 
officers in this regiment, from among the foreign Protestants 
settled and naturalized in America, gave great offense in the 
colonies, as did another clause, for the enlistment of indented 
servants, upon a compensation to be paid to their masters out 
of the colony funds. All hopes of reconciliation being now 
over, England formally declared war against France, to which 
the French court presently responded. 

Vigorous measures were, meanwhile, in progress for the 
supply and re-enforcement of Oswego. Bradstreet, of New 
York, appointed commissary-general, employed in this service 
forty companies of boatmen, each of fifty men. Under him, 
Philip Schuyler took his first lessons in the art of war. 
William Alexander, another native of New York, known 
afterward in the revolutionary armies as Lord Sterling, acted 
as Shirley's military secretary. By promises of parliament- 
ary reimbursements, and the advance to Massachusetts of 
,£30,000 out of the king's money, in his hands, Shirley as- 
sembled at Albany seven thousand provincials, chiefly of 
New England, under the command of General Winslow. 
The remains of Braddock's regiments, ordered on the same 
service, were presently joined by two new regiments from 
England, under General Abercrombie, who outranked and 
s'aperseded Shirley. But the Earl of Loudon, selected by the 
British war office as commander-in-chief, being daily expected, 
Abercrombie declined the responsibility of any forward move- 
ment. 

12* 



138 Historical and 

Loudon gave an early specimen of his habitual procrastina- 
tion, by not arriving till late in the summer. (July 27, 
1756.) It was then determined to proceed with the bulk of 
the army against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, while one 
of the regular regiments marched under General Webb, to 
re-enforce Oswego — a movement made to late. 

While the English army lay idle at Albany, short of pro- 
visions, and suffering from the small-pox, Montcalm, Die- 
skau's successor, lately arrived from France with a re-enforce- 
ment of troops, had ascended the St. Lawrence, had crossed 
Lake Ontario, had landed near Oswego with a force of five 
thousand men, regulars, Canadian militia and Indians, and 
had laid siege to the forts. One of them was abandoned as 
untenable. Colonel Mercer, the commanding officer, was 
killed. The dispirited troops, after a short bombardment, 
surrendered as prisoners of war. Upward of a thousand men, 
a hundred and thirty-five pieces of artillery, a great quantity 
of stores and provisions, and a fleet of boats and small ves- 
sels, built the year before for the Niagara expedition, fell 
into the hands of Montcalm. 

To please the Six Nations, who had never been well satis- 
fied at the existence of this post in the center of their terri- 
tory, the French commander, with great policy, destroyed the 
forts, and by this concession induced the Indians to take a 
position of neutrality. The fall of Oswego occasioned almost 
as much alarm as the defeat of Braddock the year before. 
The British troops, on the march under Webb, fell back with 
terror and precipitation to Albany. Orders were sent to give 
over the march on Ticonderoga, and to devote the eflbrts of 
that army to strengthen Forts Edward and William Henry. 

As the season advanced and their term of service expired, 
the provincials were disbanded. The loss by sickness had 
been very severe, and many died after their return. The 
regulars, except small garrisons at Forts Edward and William 
Henry, went into winter quarters at New York and Albau}" — 
not, however, till they had first been employed in keeping 
the peace between Massachusetts and New York. As the 
settlements approached each other, the boundary dispute be- 
tween those two provinces had reached the extremity of riot 
and bloodshed. Loudon's demand at New York for gratui- 
tous quarters for his officers involved him in a violent 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 1B9 

quarrel with the citizens, whom he frightened, at last, into 
obedience. 

More money being absolutely necessary for the defense of 
the frontiers, by a sort of compromise between the governor 
and the Assembly of Pennsylvania, X30,000 were voted, to 
be issued in paper, and redeemed by a ten years' continuance 
of the lately-expired excise, to be appropriated toward the 
support of twenty-five companies of rangers. Franklin having 
retired from the military service, John Armstrong — afterward 
a general in the revolutionary army — was commissioned as 
colonel, and soon distinguished himself by a successful ex- 
pedition against a hostile Indian town on the Alleghany. 
Charles ]\Iercer, a Scotch physician — afterward also a revolu- 
tionary general — served in the same expedition as captain. 
The hostile Indians, thus attacked in their own villages, 
retired further to the west ; yet scalping parties occasionally 
penetrated within thirty miles of Philadelphia. Large pre- 
miums were offered by the Assembly for Indian prisoners 
and Indian scalps. The feeling on the frontier against the 
Indians was very bitter. The Moravian missionaries, some 
of whose Indian converts had been seduced to join the hostile 
parties, became objects of suspicion. There were those, how- 
ever, among the Quakers, still true to their pacific principles, 
who insisted, and not entirely -wdthout reason, that the Dela- 
wares, so long friendly to Pennsylvania, had not been driven 
into hostilities except by wrongs and intrusions that ought 
to be redressed. They formed an association, contributed 
money, and opened a communication with the Indians for the 
purpose of bringing about a peace. (1756.) Two conferences, 
not altogether unsuccessful, were held with this intent at 
Easton. Sir William Johnson complained, indeed, that the 
Quakers had intruded upon his oflice of Indian agent and 
sole negotiator. Others alleged that by this interference 
claims were suggested which, otherwise, the Indians never 
would have thought of. It was considered a great innovation 
upon the usual course of Indian treaties when Tedyuscung, 
the Delaware chief, in the second conference at Easton, had 
for his secretary, Charles Thompson, master of the Quaker 
academy at Philadelphia, afterward secretary to the Contin- 
ental Congress. In spite of obloquy heaped upon them, in 
fepite of accusations of partiality to the Indians and treachery 



14:0 Historical and 

to the white race, the Quakers persevered ; and a third 
treaty, held the next year at Lancaster, at which delegates 
from the Six Nations were also present, afforded a partial 
relief to the frontier of Pennsylvania. 

The Carolinas, thus far, had escaped the ravages of war ; 
hut serious apprehensions began to be felt lest the Cherokees 
might be seduced from their allegiance. Though very ill 
armed, they could muster three or four thousand warriors. 
In a treaty held with them early in the war, Grovernor Glen 
had ohtained an extensive cession in the middle and upper 
part of South Carolina ; and presently, in accordance, as it 
is said, with long-repeated solicitations on the part of the 
Indians, he built Fort Prince George, on one of the head 
streams of the Savannah, within gunshot of Kee-o-wee, the 
principal village of the Lower Cherokees. Another fort, in 
the country of the Upper Cherokees, on the head waters of 
the Tennessee Eiver, near the south-western boundary of 
Virginia, was erected by a party from that province, and 
named Fort Loudon, after the commander-in-chief, who had 
also a commission as governor of Virginia. 

In consequence of a violent dispute with the Assembly, in 
which Glen and his council had involved themselves, no mili- 
tary supplies had hitherto been granted by South Carolina. 
This quarrel abated on the arrival of a new governor, Wil- 
liam H. Littleton, a cadet of the noble family of that name. 
Jle obtained a grant of <£4000 toward enlisting two compa- 
nies, to which a third was presently added, as garrisons for 
the forts. But the slave population of South Carolina was 
still more preponderant than in Virginia. It was no easy 
matter to enlist men, and the province presently received 
as welcome guests half a battalion of the Koyal Americans, 
with three hundred colonial levies from North Carolina, and 
others from Virginia. (1757.) 

The plan for the next campaign, proposed by Loudon at 
the annual military council, held this year at Boston, was 
limited to the defense of the frontiers and an expedition 
against Louishurg. To serve as garrisons for Forts William 
Henry and Edward, Loudon called on New England for four 
thousand, and on New York and New Jersey for two thou- 
sand men. Governor Hardy being appointed to a naval 
command. Lieutenant-governor Delancey reassumed the ad- 



Eevolutionary Incidents. l-ll 

ministration of New York. The Assembly of New Jersey 
took advantage of this occasion to put out a new issue of 
paper money. New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania, suffered 
from the incursions of the Delawares, against whom it con- 
tinued necessary to guard. 

To aid in the defense of Pennsylvania, Colonel Stanwix 
was stationed in the interior, with five companies of the 
Eoyal Americans; but this was only granted on condition 
that two hundred recruits should be enlisted for that regi- 
ment, to serve in South Carolina. The Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly, again yielding, had voted a levy of £100,000, without 
insisting on their claim to tax the proprietai-y estates. But 
they protested that they did it through compulsion, and they 
sent Franklin as their agent to England to urge their com- 
plaints. The charter authorized the proprietaries, their 
deputies, and lieutenants, to make laws "according to their 
best discretion," by and with the advice and consent of the 
freemen. The Assembly took the ground that the proprie- 
tary instructions to the deputy governors, being a restraint 
upon their discretion, were therefore illegal and void. 

Washington, with the Virginia levies, contiUued to watch 
the frontiers of that province. But no scheme of defense 
could answer much purpose, so long as the French held Fort 
Du Quesne. The defense of the frontiers thus provided for, 
Loudon sailed from New York with six thousand regulars, 
including late re-inforcements from England. At Halifax 
lie was joined by the English fleet of eleven sail of the line, 
under Admiral Holborne, with six thousand additional sol- 
diers on board. But Louisburg was discovered to have a 
larger garrison than had been supposed ; and while Loudon 
lingered with characteristic indecision, seventeen French 
ships of the line anchored in the harbor, and made attack 
wholly out of the question. Loudon then re-embarked his 
forces and returned to New York. 

Not only had Shirley lost his military command ; the ma- 
chinations of his enemies had deprived him of his government 
also. It was given to Thomas Pownall, whose brother was 
secretary to the Board of Trade. Pownall had first come to 
America with the unfortunate Sir Danvers Osborne. Hold- 
ing a commission as lieutenant governor of New Jersey, he 



U2 Historical an-d 

had been present at the Albany Congress, and afterward at 
the military convention at Alexandria. Though he had re- 
ceived some favors from Shirley, he joined the party against 
him, and, having gone to England, had obtained there the 
government of Massachusetts. Pownall had hardly reached 
the province, the administration of which for four months 
past had been in the hands of the council, by the death of 
Lieutenant-governor Phipps, when an express arrived from 
Fort Edward with alarming news of a French invasion. 

The British army drawn aside for the futile attack on 
Louisburg, lilontcalm, with eight thousand men, including 
the garrisons of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, ascended 
Lake George, landed at its southern extremity, and laid 
siege to Fort William Henry. Colonel Monroe, the English 
officer in command, had a garrison of two thousand men. 
General Webb lay at Fort Edward, only fourteen miles 
distant, with four thousand troops. Montcalm pressed the 
attack with vigor. No movement was made from Fort 
Edward for Monroe's relief. His ammunition was exhaust- 
ed ; and, after a six days' siege, he found himself obliged 
to capitulate. The garrison were to march out with the 
honors of war, and were to be protected, with theif baggage, 
as far as Fort Edward. Montcalm's Indian allies, dissatis- 
fied with these terms, and greedy for plunder, fell upon the 
retreating and disarmed troops. Slonroe, with the greater 
part of the men, fell back to the French camp to demand 
protection. About six hundred fled- into the woods, and the 
first who reached Fort Edward reported the massacre of the 
others. Some few were killed or never heard of; the rest 
came in one after another, many having lost their way and 
suffered extreme hardships. Frye, the commander of the 
Massachusetts forces, after wandering about some days, 
reached Fort Edward with no clothes but his shirt. 

The fall of Fort William Henry occasioned even greater 
alarm than the loss of Oswego the year before. Pownall 
appointed Sir William Pepperell lieutenant general of Mas- 
sachusetts. Orders were issued for calling out the militia, 
and twenty thousand men were assembled in arms. Satisfied 
with having caused so much terror and ejxpense, Montcalm, 
without attempting any thing further, retired again to 
Canada. 



Eevolutionary Inciden-ts. 143 

The arrival of Pownall macle a considerable cliange in the 
politics of Massachusetts. By taking Otis, of Barnstable, 
speaker of the House, and other opponents of Shirley, into 
favor, according to Hutchinson, who was presently appointed 
lieutenant governor, he disgusted the old friends of govern- 
ment, and greatly weakened the government party. Otis 
was promised a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court ; his 
son, a young lawyer of shining abilities, was appointed advo- 
cate of the Admiralty. Though Pownall's habits were rather 
freer than suited the New England standard, these conces- 
sions to the opposition, his frank manners, and liberal political 
views, served to make him very popular. 

On the death of the aged Belcher, Pownall went to New 
Jersey to assume antliority as lieutenant governor. But he 
found it impracticable to govern both provinces at the same 
time. The government of New Jersey, after remaining 
some months in the hands of the president and council, was 
transferred to Francis Bernard, a practitioner in the English 
ecclesiastical courts. 

The Massachusetts General Court had provided barracks 
at the castle, for such British troops as might be sent to the 
province. But some officers on the recruiting service, finding 
the distance inconvenient, demanded to be quartered in the 
town. They insisted on the provisions of the Mutiny Act ; 
but the magistrates to whom they applied denied that act to 
be in force in the colonies. Loudon warmly espoused the 
cause of his officers ; he declared " that in time of war the 
rules and customs of war must govern," and threatened to 
send troops to Boston to enforce the demand, if not granted 
within forty-eight hours. To avoid this extremity, the Gen- 
eral Court passed a law of their own, enacting some of the 
principal provisions of the Mutiny Act ; and Loudon, through 
Pownall's persuasions, reluctantly consented to accept this 
partial concession. The General Court did not deny the 
power of Parliament to quarter troops in America. Their 
ground was, that the act, in its terms, did not extend to the 
colonies. A similar dispute occurred in South Carolina, 
where great difficulty was encountered in finding winter 
quarters for the Eoyal Americans. 

The first royal governor of Georgia, and his secretary, 
William Little, having involved themselves in a violent 



144 Historical and 

controversy with tlie Assembly, Keynolds had been superseded 
by Henry Ellis, a protege of the Earl of Halifax, the head 
of an expedition, some nine years before, for the discovery 
of a northwest passage. The population of Georgia now 
amounted to six thousand. On the breaking out of the war, 
Eeynolds had enlisted twenty rangers, but the quarrel with 
the Assembly prevented any provision for paying them. 
After Ellis's arrival, the Assembly^ voted money for erecting 
log forts at Savannah, Augusta, Ogeechee, Midway, and New 
Inverness. Ellis applied himself to the preservation of a 
good understanding with the neighboring Creeks and the 
Spanish governor of Florida. The rangers were taken into 
the king's pay, and Ellis obtained from Colonel Bouquet, 
commanding in South Carolina, a hundred provincial troops 
of Virginia, to be quartered in Savannah. A solemn council 
was presently held with the Creeks, and a new treaty of 
peace entered into with that powerful confederacy. A long- 
dispute had been pending, in which the Creeks took a deep 
interest, growing out of the claims of Mary, the Indian inter- 
preter, of whose services Oglethorpe had availed himself on 
his first arrival in Savannah. After the death of her first 
husband, she had married a second white man, and upon his 
death, a third — no less a person than Thomas Bosom worth, 
who had first been Oglethorpe's agent for Indian aff'airs, but 
afterward had gone to England, had obtained holy orders, 
and returned to Georgia as the successor of the Wesleys and 
Whitfield. The Creeks had made a conveyance to Mary, of 
their reservation of the islands on the coast, and the tract 
just above Savannah. She also claimed a large amount as 
arrears of her salary, as colonial interpreter. After a twelve 
years' controversy, which at times had threatened an Indian 
war, the matter was finally settled by a compromise, securing 
to Mary and her husband the title to the island of St. Cath- 
arine's and the payment of ^2000 arrears, out of the sales of 
the other reserved lands. Another thing accomplished by 
Ellis was the division of the colony into eight parishes, and 
the establishment of the Church of England by law, with a 
salary of ,£25 to each parish minister. (1658.) 

To the war in America, and the simultaneous contest 
between the English and French East India Companies on the 
other side of the globe, had been added a military struggle 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 145 

the greatest the world had yet seen, carried on in the 
heart of Europe. France and Austria, forgetting their 
ancient rivalries, and supported by Russia and most of the 
Germanic States, had united against Prussia and Hanover. 
The Hanoverian army had submitted to the disgraceful capit- 
ulation of Closter-Seven ; that principality had been occupied 
by the French ; and it required all the energy and military 
genius of Ftederic of Prussia, to save him from a similar 
fate. 

In America, after three campaigns, and extraordinary 
efforts on the part of the English, the French still held pos- 
session of almost all the territory in dispute. They had 
been expelled, indeed, from the Bay of Fundy ; but Louis- 
burg, commanding the entrance of the St. Lawrence, Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, Frontenac and 
Niagara on Lake Ontario, Presque Isle on Lake Erie, and 
the chain of posts thence to the head of the Ohio, were still 
in their hands. They had expelled the English from their 
ancient post of Oswego, had driven them from Lake George, 
and had compelled the Six Nations to a treaty of neutrality. 
A devastating Indian war was raging along the whole north- 
western frontier of the British colonies. A line from the 
mouth of the Kennebec, across the Merrimac and Connecticut 
to Fort Edward on the Hudson, and thence across the Mohawk, 
the Delaware, and- the Susquehanna, to Fort Frederic on the 
Potomac, marked the exterior limit of the settlements ; but 
Indian scalping parties penetrated into the very center of 
Massachusetts, approached within a short distance of Philar 
delphia, and kept Maryland and Virginia in constant alarm, 

is 



CHAPTER XII.. 

Hildreth's account of the Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth Intercolo- 
nial War — Accession of George III — The English masters of the conti- 
nent, north of the Gulf of Mexico, and east of the Mississippi* 

William Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham, took adroit 
advantage of the popular discontent at the ill success of the 
war, to force himself to a chief seat in the British cabinet — 
a station which he owed more to his energy and eloquence 
than to court favor, or to the influence of family or party 
connections, hitherto, in England, the chief avenues to power. 
Leaving to Newcastle, who still acted as nominal head of the 
ministry, the details of the domestic administration, Pitt, as 
secretary of state, with the cipher, Holderness, as his col- 
league in that department, assumed to himself the control 
of foreign and colonial affairs, and the entire management 
of the war. (1757.) 

Determined on a vigorous campaign in America, he ad- 
dressed a circular to the colonies, in which he called for 
twenty thousand men, and as many more as could be fur- 
nished. The crown would provide arms, ammunition, tents, 
and provisions ; the colonies were to raise, clothe, and pay 
the levies ; but for all these expenses, Pitt promised a parlia- 
mentary reimbursement — a promise which acted like magic. 
Massachusetts voted seven thousand men, beside six hundred 
maintailied for frontier defense. To fill up this quota, sol- 
diers were drafted from the militia and obliged to serve. 
The advances of Massachusetts during the year, were not lesg 
than- a million of dollars. Individual Boston merchants paid 
taxes to the amount of ;^2,000. The tax on real estate 
amounted to two thirds the income. The insolvencies 
146 



Revolutionary Ixcidexts. 147 

•occasioned by the pressure of the war, gave rise to a bank- 
rupt act, but this was disallowed in England. Connecticut 
voted five thousand men. New Hampshire and Rhode Island 
furnished each a regiment of five hundred men. The New 
York quota of one thousand seven hundred men was raised 
to two thousand six hundred and eighty. The New Jersey 
regiment was enlarged to a thousand. The Assembly of 
Pennsylvania appropriated X100,000 toward bringing two 
thousand seven hundred men into the field. Virginia raised 
two thousand men. (1758.) 

To co-operate with these colonial levies, the Royal Ameri- 
cans were recalled from Carolina. Large re-enforcements 
of regulars were also sent from England, made disposable by 
a plan which Pitt had adopted for intrusting the local de- 
fense of Great Britain, to an organized and active body of 
militia. By means of tliese various arrangements, Aber- 
crombie, appointed commander-in-chief, found fifty thousand 
men at his disposal — a greater number than the whole male 
population of New France. Of this army, twenty-two thou- 
sand were regulars, including the Royal Americans ; the rest 
were provincials. The total number of the inhabitants of 
Canada able to bear arms, did not exceed twenty thousand ; 
the regular troops were from four to five thousand. As the 
people had been so constantly called off to bear arms, culti- 
vation had been neglected, and Canada suSered almost a 
famine. 

Shirley's schemes of conquest were now renewed. Louis- 
burg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne were all to be struck 
at once. The first blow fell on Louisburg. Boscawen ap- 
peared before that fortress with thirty-eight ships of war, 
convoying from Halifax an army of fourteen thousand men, 
chiefly regulars, under General Amherst, but including, also, 
a strong detachment of New England troops. Louisburg 
was held by a garrison of three thousand men ; eleven ships 
of war lay in the harbor. But the works were too much out 
of repair to withstand the operations of a regular siege ; and 
the garrison, after suffering severe loss, found themselves 
obliged to capitulate. This capitulation included not Louis- 
burg only, but the islands of Cape Breton, St. John's, (now 
Prince Edward's,) and their dependencies. The garrison be- 
came prisoners of war ; the inhabitants, many of them 



148 HiSTOEICAL AND 

refugees from Acadie, were shipped to France. Such was ihe^ 
end of the French attempts at colonization, in the Gulf of St- 
Lawrence, which now passed into exclusive English occupa- 
tion. Amherst sailed with his army for Boston, and thence- 
marched to the western frontier. 

While the siege of Louisburg was going on, Abercrombie, 
with sixteen thousand men, embarked at Fort William Henry 
in flat boats prepared for the purpose, and, passing down 
Lake George, landed near its outlet. The van, advancing 
in some confusion through the woods, encountered a French 
scouting party, which had also lost its way, and a skirmish 
ensued, in which fell Lord Howe, a young ofiicer who had 
made himself very popular with the provincials, and to whose 
memory, Massachusetts erected a monument in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Ticonderoga was held by some two thousand French sol- 
diers. As reinforcements were said to be approaching, 
Abercrombie, without waiting for his artillery, rashly ordered 
an assault. The rear and sides of the fort were covered by 
water, and the front by a morass. The storming party were 
ordered to rush swiftly through the enemy's fire, reserving 
their own till they had passed the breastwork. But that- 
breastwork was nine feet high, much stronger than was ex- 
pected, and guarded, in addition, by trees felled, with their 
branches sharpened, and pointing outward like so many lances 
against the assailants. After a four hours' struggle, and the 
loss in killed and wounded of two thousand men, Abercrom- 
bie abandoned the attack, and the next day made a precipi- 
tate and disorderly retreat to Fort William Henry. Among 
the wounded was Charles Lee, then a captain in the British 
service, afterward first major-general of the revolutionary 
army. Li consequence of this defeat, Abercrombie was; 
superseded, and the command-in-chief given to Amherst. 

Though no further attempt was made on Ticonderoga,. 
Abercrombie 's forces were not wholly idle. ■ With a detach- 
ment of three thousand men, chiefly provincials of New 
York and New England, Bradstreet marched to Oswego, 
embarked there in vessels already provided, and, having 
ascended the lake, landed at Fort Frontenac. That place 
was untenable. The feeble garrison, taken entirely by 
surprise, speedily surrendered. Nine armed vessels were 



Eevulutioxary Incidents. 149 

■captured; and the fort, with a large store of provisions, was 
•destroyed. Bradstreet's loss by the enemy was inconsidera- 
te ; but not less than five hundred men perished by sickness. 
These troops, on their return, assisted in building Fort Stan- 
wix, intermediate between Oswego and Albany, on the site 
now occupied by the flourishing village of Rome. Among 
the officers under Bradstreet were Woodhull, who fell nine- 
teen years afterward on Long Island, and Van Schaick, 
afterward a colonel in the New York revolutionary line. 

The expedition against Fort Du Quesne had been commit- 
ted to General Forbes, with an army of seven thousand men, 
including the Pennsylvania and Virginia levies, the Royal 
Americans recalled from South Carolina, and an auxiliary 
force of Cherokee Indians. The Virginia troops were con- 
centrated at Cumberland, and those of Pennsylvania at 
Raystown, on the south branch of the Juniata. Washington 
advised to march from Cumberland, along the road cut by 
Braddock's army; but, under the advice of some Pennsylva- 
nia land speculators, Forbes ordered a new road to be opened 
from Raystown. With a division of two thousand five hun- 
dred men, Bouquet, who commanded the advance, presently 
reached Loyal Hanna, on the Kiskiminitas, the south branch 
of the Alleghany. Major Grant, with eight hundred men, 
sent forward from Loyal Hanna to reconnoiter, was surprised 
and driven back, with the loss of three hundred men, being 
himself taken prisoner. The enemy presently attacked 
Bouquet in his camp, but were repulsed by the artillery. 
The obstacles along the new route proved very serious ; and 
the Virginia Assembly, in a state of discouragement, resolved 
to withdraw a part of their troops. Forbes at last joined 
Bouquet with the main body and the heavy baggage. But 
.the army, weakened by desertion and dispirited by sickness, 
was still fifty miles from Fort Du Quesne, and separated 
from it by an immense forest, without a road. Winter also 
was close at hand. A council of war advised the abandon- 
ment of the enterprise; but, before any retrograde motion 
was made, three prisoners, accidentally taken, revealed the 
feebleness of the enemy. The blow struck by Bradstreet at 
Fort Frontenac had been felt o^i the Ohio in the failure of 
expected supplies, and the French, in consequence, had been 
deserted by the greater part of their Indian allies. Inspired 
13* 



150 Historical a-nd 

with Iresli ardor, and leaving baggage and artillery behind, 
the troops, in spite of obstacles, pushed forward, at a rate, 
however, of less than ten miles a day. The day before they 
reached the fort, the French garrison, reduced to less than 
five hundred men, set fire to the works, and retired down the 
river. A detachment of four hundred and fifty men was left 
to hold this important post, for the possession of which the 
war had commenced, and Avhich was now named Fort Pitt by 
the captors. The rest of the army hastened to return, before 
the setting in of winter. Fruits of this conquest were spee- 
dily realized in the inclination of the neighboring Indians 
for peace. Virginia and Maryland were now relieved from 
Indian incursions. Already a treaty had been held at Easton, 
with the Six Nations and their dependent tribes, the Dela- 
wares and others, by which all existing difficulties had been 
finally settled, and peace once more restored to the frontiers 
of Pennsylvania. 

Only the Eastern Indians still remained hostile. To hold 
them in check, and to cut off* their communication with Can- 
ada, Fort Pownall was presently built on the Penobscot, the 
first permanent English occupation of that region. 

The perseverance of the Pennsylvania Assembly triumphed 
at last. Tired of struggling on unpaid — for they resolutely 
refused to vote him any salary unless he would come to their 
terms — Governor Denny consented to a tax act in which the 
proprietary estates were included. The Assembly had indem- 
nified him against the forfeiture of the bond by which he had 
bound himself to obey his instructions, and they rewarded 
this and other compliances by liberal grants of salary. But 
this violation of his instructions very soon cost Denny his 
office. (1759.) 

Seconded by an eager Parliament, Pitt resolved to follow 
up the successes of the late campaign by an attack on Can- 
ada — an intention communicated, under an oath of secrecy, 
to the colonial Assemblies. Stimulated by the prompt reim- 
bursement of their last year's expenses to the amount of 
near a million of dollars, the Assemblies acted with prompti- 
tude and energy. With the opening of the spring, twenty 
thousand colonial soldiers were again in the field, and to 
enable the commissariat department, which found it difficult 
to sell bills on the British treasury, to provide provisions for 



EeVOLUTIONARY jNCIDENTa. 151 

tlie troops, the Assemblies of New York and Pennsylvania 
advanced a large sum in paper money. 

The plan now adopted for the conquest of Canadd, was' not 
materially different from that which Phipps and Warren had 
successively failed to execute. Amherst advanced by way 
of Lake Champlain with twelve thousand regulars and pro- 
vincials; Wolfe, a young general who had distinguished 
himself at the siege of Louisburg, having sailed early in the 
spring from England, escorted by a powerful fleet, made his 
appearance in the St. Lawrence with an army of eight thou- 
sand regular troops, in three brigades, commanded by Monc- 
ton, Townshend, and Murray. The danger of Quebec caused 
the withdrawal of the garrisons of Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, and both these places soon, without any serious strug- 
gle, passed into Amherst's hands. 

According to the scheme of operations, Amherst should 
have proceeded down Lake Champlain to join Wolfe before 
Quebec, or, at least, to effect a diversion by attacking Mon- 
treal; but the want of vessels rendered this movement 
impossible. With Amherst was a body of New Hampshire 
Rangers, under Major Eogers, distinguished as a partisan 
officer, in whose corps served as captain, John Stark, a briga- 
dier afterward in the revolutionary army. Two hundred of 
these rangers were detached from Crown Point, against the 
Indian village of St. Francis, whose inhabitants had long 
been the terror of the New England frontier. Enriched by 
plunder and the ransom of their captives, these Indians had 
a handsome Catholic chapel, with plate and ornaments". 
Their village was adorned by numerous scalps, trophies of 
victory, stretched on hoops, and elevated on poles. The 
rangers accomplished their march through the woods, and 
took the village entirely by surprise. A large part of the 
warriors were dlain ; the village — as had happened so often in 
New England — was first plundered, and then burned. Their 
object thus accomplished, fearing lest their trail from Crown 
Point might be watched, the victors attempted to return by 
way of Lake Memphremagog and the Connecticut. But 
their provisions fell short ; some perished for want of food ; 
some were killed by the pursuing Indians. The greater 
part, however, reached, at last, the uppermost settlements on 



152 Historical and 

the Connecticut, just below Bellows Falls, and thence made 
good their retreat to Crown Point. 

In pursuance of the original plan of campaign, a third 
array, composed principally of provincials, and commanded 
by General Prideaux, had been collected at Oswego, for an 
attack on Niagara. Notwithstanding the late treaty of neu- 
trality, the influence of Sir William Johnson had induced a 
large body of warriors of the Six Nations to join this army. 
After a prosperous voyage from Oswego, Prideaux landed at 
Niagara and opened his batteries, but was soon killed by the 
bursting of a gun, when Johnson succeeded to the chief com- 
mand. Twelve hundred French regulars, drawn from the 
western posts, and followed by an equal force of Indian 
auxiliaries, advanced to raise the siege. Aware of their 
approach, Johnson took an advantageous position in advance 
of the fort. The relieving force was totally routed, and a 
large part taken prisoners. The fort surrendered the next 
day, and six hundred men with it. According to the plan 
of operations, Johnson should have descended Lake Ontario 
to co-operate on the St. Lawrence with Amherst and Wolfe ; 
but the want of proper shipping, the small supply of provis- 
ions, and the incumbrance of the French prisoners, prevented 
him from doing so. 

Deprived thus of all co-operation, Wolfe was left to besiege 
Quebec alone. Occupying a point of laud on the north shore 
of the St. Lawrence, protected on the south by that river, 
and on the north by the tributary stream of the St. Charles, 
Quebec consisted then, as now, of an upper and a lower town, 
both regularly fortified. The lower town was built on a 
narrow beach at the water's edge, above which rose the 
Heights of Abraham, an almost perpendicular range of lofty 
rocks, forming the river banks. On the level of these 
heights stretched a wide plain, on which the upper town was 
built. Overhanging the St. Lawrence, and extending for a 
great distance above the town, the heights seemed to afford 
on that side, an almost impregnable defense. Several float- 
ing batteries and armed vessels were moored in the St. 
Charles, and beyond it, in a camp strongly intrenched, and 
covered by the Montmorency, another and larger river, which 
enters the St. Lawrence a short distance below Quebec, lay 
Montcalm's army, almost equal in numbers to that of Wolfe, 



Bevolutionary Incidents. 153 

but composed largely of Canadians and Indians. Every 
exertion had been made for the defense of the city, but the 
supply of provisions was very limited. 

Wolfe had landed on the fertile island of Orleans, just 
below the city. His naval superiority gave him full com- 
mand of the river. After a slight skirmish, he gained pos- 
session of Point Levi, held by a body of French troops, on 
the south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec, where 
he erected batteries, which set fire to and destroyed the 
Cathedral and many houses, but the distance was too great 
for any effect on the fortifications. Wolfe then landed on 
the opposite bank, below the town, intending to force the pas- 
sage of the Montmorency, and to bring Montcalm to an action. 
The French were very strongly posted, and the impetuosity 
of Wolfe's advanced party, which rushed to the attack before 
support was ready, obliged him to retire with a loss of five 
hundred men. 

An attempt was then made to destroy the French shipping, 
and to alarm and draw out the garrison by descents above 
the town. One valuable magazine was destroyed, a great 
many houses were burned, much plunder was made, but it 
was impossible to cut out the French ships. To guard against 
future attacks, Montcalm sent De Bougainville up the river 
with fifteen hundred men. 

The prospect was very discouraging. The season for ac- 
tion was fast passing. Nothing had been heard of the forces 
designed to co-operate from the side of New York, except 
reports from the enemy, of the retreat of Amherst. Though 
suffering from severe illness, instead of despairing, Wolfe 
embraced the bold proposal of his principal officers, to scale 
the Hights of Abraham, and thus to approach the city on 
the side where its defenses were feeblest. Above Quebec 
there was a narrow beach sufficient to afford a practicable 
landing place ; but it might easily be missed in the dark ; 
and the hights rose so steep above it, that even by daylight 
and unopposed, the ascent was a matter of hazard and diffi- 
culty. Should the French be on their guard, repulse was 
inevitable. (1759.) 

The army, placed on ship-board, moved up the river, several 
miles beyond the proposed landing-place. To distract atten- 
tion and conceal the real design, a show was made of 



154 Historical and 

disembarking at several points. When niglit had set in, 
flat-bottomed boats, with the soldiers on board, fell down the 
river with the tide, and, carefully avoiding the French sen- 
tinels, sucx^eeded in finding the beach. The light troops wer 
led by Colonel Howe, afterward Sir William, and commander- 
in-chief of the British armies in America. Assisted by the 
rugged projections of the rocks and the branches of trees, 
they made their way up the bights, and, having dispersed 
a small force stationed there, covered the ascent of the main 
body. Early in the morning, the whole British army ap- 
peared drawn up on the Plains of Abraham. To meet this 
unexpected movement, Montcalm put his troops in motion. 
Nothing now but a victory could prevent a siege and save 
the city. He advanced, accordingly, in order of battle. 
Bodies of Indians and Canadians in his front, kept up an 
irregular but galling fire. Wolfe gave orders to disregard 
these skirmishers, and to await tlie approach of the main 
body. The French had arrived within forty yards of the 
English, when their advance was checked by a heavy fire of 
musketry and grape. Eight or ten six-pounders, dragged 
up the bights by the seamen, were brought into line after 
the action began. The French appear to have had but two 
small field-pieces. The battle raged fiercest on the riglit of 
the English and the left of the French, where the two gen- 
erals were respectively stationed opposite each other. Though 
already twice wounded, Wolfe gave orders for the charge. 
He fell, wounded a third time, and mortally ; but the grena- 
diers still advanced. The French, close pressed by the Eng- 
lish bayonets and the broadswords of the Scotch Highland 
regiments, began to give way. To complete their confusion, 
Montcalm fell with a mortal wound. The whole French line 
was soon in disorder. Five hundred Frenchmen were killed ; 
a thousand, including the wounded, were taken prisoners. 
The English loss amounted to six hundred killed and wound- 
ed. A part of the dispersed army escaped into the town, 
but the bulk of the fugitives retired across the St. Charles. 
Hardly was the battle over, when De Bougainville made his 
appearance, marching hastily down the river. An hour or 
two sooner, and he might have changed the fortune of the 
day. As it was, after collecting the fugitives from behind 
the St. Charles, he retired again up the St. Lawrence. 



Revolutionary Incidents. 155 

Preparations for besieging the city were commenced by 
Townshend, Avliom Wolfe's death and Moncton's severe wound 
had made commander-in-chief, but tlirough lack of provisions 
it surrendered on capitulation, five days after the battle — the 
regulars to be sent to France, the inhabitants to be guaran- 
teed their property and religion. General Murray, with five 
thousand men, was left in garrison. The fleet, with the sick 
and the French prisoners, hastened to anticipate the approach-, 
ing frost by retiring to Halifax, where the ships were to 
Avinter. 

The Cherokees, who had accompanied Forbes in his ex- 
pedition against Fort Du Quesne, returning home along the 
mountains, had involved themselves in quarrels with the back 
settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas, in which several, both 
Indians and white men, had been killed. Some chiefs, who 
had proceeded to Charleston to arrange this dispute, were 
received by Governor Littleton in very haughty style, and 
he presently marched into the Cherokee country at the head 
of fifteen hundred men, contributed by Virginia and the 
Carolinas, demanding the surrender of the murderers of the 
English. He was soon glad, however, of any apology for 
retiring. His troops proved very insubordinate ; the small- 
pox broke out among them ; and, having accepted twenty-two 
Indian hostages as security for peace and the future delivery 
of the murderers, he broke up his camp, and fell back in 
haste and confusion. (Jan. 1760.) 

The hostages, including several principal chiefs and war- 
riors, were placed for safe keeping in Fort Prince George, at 
the head of the Savannah. No sooner was Littleton's army 
gone, than the Cherokees attempted to entrap into their 
power the commander of that post, and, apprehensive of some 
plan for the rescue of the hostages, he gave orders to put 
them in irons. They resisted ; and a soldier having been 
wounded in the struggle, his infuriated companions fell upon 
the prisoners and put them all to death. Indignant at this 
outrage, the Cherokees beleaguered the fort, and sent out war 
parties in every direction, to attack the frontiers. The As- 
sembly of South Carolina, in great alarm, voted a thousand 
men, and offered a premium of £25 for every Indian scalp. 
North Carolina offered a similar premium, and authorized, 
in addition, the holding of Indian captives as slaves. An 



156 Historical axd 

express, asking assistance, was sent to General Amherst, who 
detached twelve hundred men, under Colonel Montgomery, 
chiefly Scotch Highlanders, lately stationed on the western 
frontier, with orders to make a dash at the Cherokees, hut 
to return in season for the next campaign against Canada. 

Promoted to the government of Jamaica, Littleton had 
resigned the administration of South Carolina to William 
Bull, the lieutenant-governor, a native of the province, whose 
father, of the same name, had formerly administered the 
government, as president of the council. Bull, a man of 
talents and character, had received at Leyden a medical 
degree — the first, or one of the first, ever obtained by a 
native Anglo-American. With some short intei-vals, during 
which Thomas Boone, Lord Charles Montague, and Lord 
William Campbell acted as governors, he continued, as lieu- 
tenant-governor, at the head of affairs, till South Carolina 
ceased to be a British province. 

Joining his forces with the provincial levies, Montgomery 
entered the Cherokee country, raised the blockade of Fort 
Prince George, and ravaged the neighboring district. March- 
ing then upon Etchoe, the chief village of the Middle Cher- 
okees, within five miles of that place he encountered a large 
body of Indians, strongly posted in a difficult defile, from 
which they were only driven after a very severe struggle ; 
or, according to other accounts, Montgomery was himself 
repulsed. At all events, he retired to Charleston, and, in 
obedience to his orders, prepared to embark for service at 
the north. When this determination became known, the 
province was thrown into the utmost consternation. The 
Assembly declared themselves unable to raise men to protect 
the frontiers; and a detachment of four hundred regulars 
was presently conceded to Bull's earnest solicitations. 

During the pressure of the war with the Western Indians, 
as one means of raising supplies, the Assembly of Virginia, 
by two or three suceessive acts, had carried the five per cent, 
standing duty on imported slaves as high as twenty per cent. 
This duty having " been found very burdensome to the fair 
purchaser, a great disadvantage to the settlement and improve- 
ment of the lands in the colony, introductive of many frauds, 
and not to answer the end thereby intended, inasmuch as 
the same prevents the importation of slaves, and thereby 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 157 

lessens the fund arising from the duty," it was now reduced 
to ten per cent — a positive and distinct legislative assertion, 
notwithstanding what Jefferson has represented to the con- 
trary, that Virginia duty on slaves was imposed for revenue 
only. 

The proprietaries of Pennsylvania, disgusted at Denny's 
faithlessness, had prevailed upon Hamilton to accept again 
the office of deputy-governor. But, to obtain means for fur- 
nishing the quota of that province toward the approaching 
campaign, he was obliged, like his predecessor, to consent to 
a tax on the proprietary estates. Bound by the consent of 
their deputy, though given against their instruction — for 
such was the constitutional doctrine established in Pennsyl- 
vania — the Penns petitioned for the royal veto on eleven acts 
which Denny had passed, including the tax act above referred 
to. Franklin, as an agent for the Assembly on the one hand, 
and the proprietaries on the other, were heard by their counsel 
before the Board of Trade. In giving their decision, the 
Lords of Trade commented in very severe terms on the collu- 
sion between the Assembly and Denny, evinced by a grant 
to the governor of a distinct sum of money for consenting to 
each of these eleven obnoxious acts. The other acts were 
disallowed ; but, on the great point of the right to tax the 
proprietary estates, the Assembly triumphed. The Board of 
Trade required, indeed, certain modifications of the act, to 
which Pranklin readily assented on behalf of the province. 
The Assembly gave him a vote of thanks; but they hesitated 
in fulfilling the agreement he had made ; nor was it long 
before the dispute with the proprietaries broke out with more 
violence than ever. 

After the fall of Quebec, Vaudreuil, the governor general 
of Canada, had concentrated all his forces at Montreal, and, 
during the winter, had made every possible preparation for 
attempting the recovery of the capital before the garrison 
could be relieved. As soon as the melting of the ice would 
permit, M. De Levi advanced for that purpose with ten thou- 
sd,nd men. The English garrison had suffered during the 
winter for want of fresh provisions. A thousand soldiers had 
died of the scurvy. Murray could hardly muster three thou- 
sand men fit for duty. Anxious, however, to avoid a siege, 
and trusting to his superior discipline, he marched out, and 
14 



158 Historical and, 

gave battle at Sillery. He was beaten, however, with the 
loss of all his artillery and a thousand men, was driven back 
to Quebec, and besieged there. Some ships, dispatched from 
England very early in the season, presently arrived with 
supplies, anticipating not only the French fleet, buf the Eng- 
lish squadron also which had wintered at Halifax. Alarmed 
at their appearance, and supposing that the whole English 
fleet had arrived, M. De Levi gave over the siege, and retired 
precipitately to Montreal. Against this last stronghold of 
the enemy all efforts were now directed. Anxious to com- 
plete the conquest of Canada, the Northern colonies zealously 
contributed. 

Three armies were soon in motion. Amherst, at the head 
of ten thousand men, beside a thousand Indians of the Six 
Nations, led by Johnson, embarked at Oswego, and sailed 
down the lake and the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where he 
was met by Murray with four thousand men from Quebec. 
Haviland arrived the next day, with a third army of three 
thousand five hundred men, by way of Lake Champlain. The 
force thus assembled was quite overwhelming. Kesistance 
was not to be thought of. The French governor signed a 
capitulation, by which he gave up not only Montreal, but 
Presque Isle, Detroit, Mackinaw, and all the other posts of 
Western Canada. The regular troops, about four thousand 
men, were to be sent to France. The Canadians were guar- 
anteed their property and worship. 

Nowhere was the general joy of the colonies at the conquest 
of Canada more enthusiastically felt than in New York, of 
which the northern and western limits had so long been in 
dispute with the French. New York had indeed, in those 
directions, no definite boundary, though the Assembly had 
been accustomed to claim, by virtue of alleged cessions from 
the Six Nations, as far north as the outlet of Lake Cham- 
plain, and the whole peninsula between Lakes Ontario and 
Huron — pretensions extended, indeed, even to the peninsula 
of Michigan, and beyond it. 

By the sudden death of Delancey, the administration of 
New York had devolved on Cadwallader Colden, who was 
presently appointed lieutenant-governor. Though now upward 
of seventy years of age, Colden continued in that office for 



Revolutionary Incidents. 159 

sixteen years ; and, in consequence of tlie frequent absence 
of the governors, was repeatedly at the head of affairs. 

Great, too, was the exultation in New England, whose 
eastern and northern frontiers were now finally delivered 
from that scourge of Indian warfare by which they had been 
visited six times within the preceding eighty-five years. The 
Indians themselves, by these successive contests, had been 
almost anniliilated. Most of the hostile tribes had emigrated 
to Canada, or else were extinct. There remained only a 
small band of Penobscots, on whom was bestowed a limited 
reservation, still possessed by their degenerate descendants. 

While the northern colonies exulted in safety, the Chero- 
kee war still kept the frontiers of Carolina in alarm. Left 
to themselves by the withdrawal of Montgomery, the Upper 
Cherokees had beleaguered Fort Loudon. After living for 
some time on horse-flesh, the garrison, under a promise of 
safe-conduct to the settlements, had been induced to sur- 
render. But this promise was broken ; attacked on the way, 
a part were killed, and the rest detained as prisoners; after 
which, the Indians directed all their fury against the fron- 
tiers. On a new application, presently made tu Amherst, for 
assistance, the Highland regiment, now commanded by Grant, 
was ordered back to Carolina. (1761.) 

New levies were also made in the province, and Grant 
presently marched into the Cherokee country with two thou- 
sand six hundred men. In a second battle, near the same spot 
with the fight of the previous year, the Indians were driven 
back with loss. Etchoe, with the other villages of the Mid- 
dle Cherokees, was plundered and burned, and all the grow- 
ing corn destroyed. The Indians took refuge in the defiles 
of the mountains, and, subdued and humbled, sued for peace. 
As the condition on which alone it would be granted, they 
were required to deliver up four warriors, to be shot at the 
head of the army, or to furnish four green Indian scalps 
within twenty days. A personal application to Governor 
Bull, by an old chief, long known for his attachment to the 
English, procured a relinquishment of this brutal demand, 
and peace was presently made, without any further effusion 
of blood. 

The English arms were thus everywhere triumphant ; but 
as the French might attempt the re-conquest of Canada, the 



160 Historical and 

colonies were still required to keep up their quotas at two- 
thirds of the former amount. The French officers in Canada, 
in the course of the war, had been guilty of immense pecu- 
lations. There was outstanding, in unpaid bills on France, 
and in card or paper money, more than twenty millions of 
dollars, a large portion of it, as the French court contended, 
fraudulently issued. But a very small indemnity was ever 
obtained by the holders of this paper, the payment of which 
had been suspended immediately after the capture of Quebec. 

Having obtained an appointment as governor of South 
Carolina, on which, however, he never entered, after a very 
popular administration, Pownall had been succeeded as gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, by Francis Bernard, late governor 
of New Jersey, where Thomas Boone, and, on his speedy re- 
moval to South Carolina, Josiah Hardy supplied his place. 

The British merchants loudly complained of a trade car- 
ried on by the northern colonies, not only with the neutral 
ports of St. Thomas and Eustatius, but directly with the 
French islands, under flags of truce granted by the colonial 
governors nominally for an exchange of prisoners, but in- 
tended, in fact, as mere covers for a commerce, whereby the 
French fleets, garrisons, and islands in the West Indies were 
supplied with provisions and other necessaries. Pitt had is- 
sued strict orders to put a stop to this trade ; but it was too 
profitable to be easily suppressed. The colonists, indeed, 
maintained that it was policy to make as much money out of 
the enemy as possible, and they cited the example of the 
Dutch, who had fought with the Spaniards and traded with 
them at the same time. 

Bernard, a great stickler for the authority of the mother 
country, found an able coadjutor in Thomas Hutchinson, 
late speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, and now a 
counselor, whose zeal for the crown and appetite for emolu- 
ment, had been rewarded by the office of judge of probate 
for Sufiblk county, and, on Phipps's death, by the post of 
lieutenant-governor, to which was now added the place of 
chief justice, much to the disappointment of Otis, Hutchin- 
son's successor as speaker, to whom Pownall had promised a 
seat on the bench. The strict enforcement of the acts of 
trade, attempted by Bernard, had provoked a strenuous opposi- 
tion, and the custom-house officers had applied to the Superior 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 161 

Court to grant them writs of assistance, according to the 
English Exchequer practice — warrants, that is, to search, 
when and where they pleased, for smuggled goods, and to 
call in the aid of others to assist them. To oppose the issue 
of these writs, the merchants retained Oxenhridge Thatcher 
and James Otis. Thatcher was a leading practitioner in Bos- 
ton. Otis, son of the speaker, a young lawyer of hrilliant 
talents and ardent temperament, was advocate of the Admir- 
alty, and in that capacity hound to argue for the issue of the 
writs. But he resigned his office, and accepted the retainer 
of the merchants. Not content with Thatcher's merely legal 
and technical objections, Otis took high ground as to the 
rights of the colonies. He assailed the acts of trade as op- 
pressive in some instances and unconstitutional in others, and 
by his vehement eloquence gave a tone to public sentiment, 
not without serious influence on subsequent events. The 
writs were granted, but they were so excessively unpopular 
as to be seldom used. Elected a representative from Boston, 
Otis became a leading member of the House, and a warm 
opponent of Hutchinson, whom he endeavored to exclude 
from the council by a bill declaring the places of chief jus- 
tice and counselor incompatible with each other. But Hutch- 
inson's influence was considerable, enough to defeat this bilL 
Another, which passed, requiring the oath of a custom-house 
officer to justify the issue of a writ of assistance, was rejected 
by the governor. 

The accession of the young king, George IH, though it 
introduced some new members into the cabinet, had made no 
immediate change of policy. (1760.) Canada conquered, 
the British arms had been turned against the French islands 
in the West Indies. Guadaloupe had been already captured. 
(1761.) General Moncton, after producing to the council of 
New York his commission as governor, sailed from that port 
with two line-of-battle ships, a hundred transports, and twelve 
thousand regular and colonial troops. Gates went out with 
him as aid-de-camp, and carried to England the news of the 
capture of Martinique. Montgomery, afterward, as well 
as Gates — a general of the revolutionary army — held in 
this expedition the rank of captain. The colonial trojpa 
Avere led by General Lyman. The successes of Moncton 
Ave re not limited to Martinique. Grenada, St. Lucie, and 
14* 



162 Historical and 

St. Vincent's — every island, in fact, which the French pos- 
sessed in the Caribbee group, fell into the hands of the British. 

The French fleet was ruined. French merchantmen were 
driven from the seas. British vessels, including many from 
New York and New England, acquired the carrying trade, 
not of the conquered islands only, but, under safe-conducts 
and flags of truce, of the larger and more wealthy colony of 
St. Domingo. This lucrative commerce, with the profits of 
privateering and of supplying provisions for the British fleets 
and armies, made the war very popular in America, and 
Pitt an idol ; but that " great Commoner," as he delighted 
to be called, had ceased to be minister. 

Charles HI., on whom the crown of Spain had lately 
devolved, had never forgotten nor forgiven a threat of bom- 
bardment by a British admiral, to which, at a former period, 
when King of Naples, he had been obliged to yield. As 
King of Spain, he had signed with France a treaty known as 
the Family Compact, amounting substantially to an alliance 
offensive and defensive. Pitt had secret information of this 
treaty, and wished at once to declare war against Spain. But 
Pitt was an object of jealousy and dislike to the young king, 
desirous to secure for himself a more active participation in 
aff'airs than had been enjoyed by his two predecessors. The 
ministry split on this point, Pitt retired from ofiice, and the 
king hastened to raise to the head of the administration the 
Marquis of Bute, his late preceptor. Yet, scarcely had Pitt 
left the ministry, when hostilities commenced on the part of 
Spain — a step which cost that declining monarchy dear. The 
Spanish colonial commerce was cut off by cruisers, and pre- 
sently Havana, the key of the Gulf of Mexico, was taken by 
a British armament. 

The present contest for territorial and commercial suprem- 
acy had extended even to the East Indies, thus, as it were, 
encircling the globe. A twenty years' struggle in Hindostan, 
between the French and English East India Companies, had 
ended in the complete triumph of the English, securing to 
them the dominion of the Carnatic and Bengal — the begin- 
ning of that career of territorial aggrandizement in India, 
aince so remarkably carried out. 

With finances almost ruined, powerless to struggle any 
lonarer against such a succession of losses, the French court 



Revolutionary Incidexts. 163 

was obliged to abandon the contest, and with it all claim to 
territorial possessions on the North American continent. The 
island and city of New Orleans, with all of Louisiana west 
of the Mississippi, were ceded to Spain, in consideration of 
her losses in the war. Louisiana, thus given to the Span- 
iards, contained about ten thousand inhabitants. The trans- 
fer was very disagreeable to them, and six years elapsed before 
the Spanish actually took possession. 

By the treaty of Fontainebleau, all the vast region east of 
Mississippi, the island of New Orleans excepted, was yielded 
up to the British. Spain also ceded Florida in exchange for 
Havana. Thus was vested in the British crown, so far as 
the consent of rival European claimants could give it, the 
sovereignty of the whole eastern half of North America, from 
the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay and the Polar Ocean, 
including hundreds of thousands of square miles upon which 
the foot of the white man had never yet trod. By the terms 
of the treaty, the navigation of the Mississippi, from it? 
source to its mouth, was to be free to both parties, without 
liability to stoppage, search, or duty. 

Martinique, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucie, islands of the Car- 
ribee group, which some politicians wished Great Britain to 
retain instead of Canada, were restored to France ; also her 
former rights in the Newfoundland fishery. Beside Canada 
and its appurtenances, Great Britain received also St. Vin- 
cent's, Dominica, and Tobago, islands hitherto called neutral, 
and the two former still possessed by the native Indian inhab- 
itants — the French and English not having hitherto been 
able to agree which should be allowed to take possession of 
them. These islands were erected, by proclamation, into the 
government of Grenada. (17G3.) 

The same proclamation erected on the continent the three 
new British provinces of East Florida, West Florida, and 
Quebec. East Florida was bounded on the north by the St. 
Mary's, the intervening region thence to the Altamalia being 
annexed to Georgia. The boundaries of West Florida were 
the Appalachicola, the Gulf of Mexico, the Misssissippi, Lakes 
Ponchartrain and Maurepas ; and on the north, the thirty- 
first degree of north latitude, for which, however, was sub- 
stituted, the next year, a line due east from the mouth of 



164 Historical and 

the Yazoo, so as to include the French settlements about 
Natchez. The boundary assigned to the province of Quebec 
corresponded with the claims of New York and Massachu- 
setts, being a line from the southern end of Lake Nepissing, 
striking the St. Lawrence at the forty-fifth degree of north 
latitude, and following that parallel across the foot of Lake 
Champlain to the sources of the Connecticut, and thence along 
the highlands which separate the waters flowing into the St. 
Lawrence from those which fall into the sea. 

By the same proclamation, grants of land were authorised 
to the reduced ofiiccrs and discharged soldiers who had served 
during the war — five thousand acres each to field oflScers, 
three thousand to captains, two thousand to subalterns and 
staff ofiicers, two hundred to non-commissioned officers, and 
fifty to privates. To prevent the mischiefs and disputes 
which had grown out of the purchase of Indian lands by pri- 
vate individuals, all such purchases within the crown colonies 
were in future to be made only by public treaty, and for the 
use of the crown ; nor, except in Quebec and West Florida, 
were any lands to be taken up beyond th6 heads of the rivers 
flowing into the Atlantic. These provisions were designed to 
restrain the backwoodsmen, and to prevent Indian hostilities ; 
but already, before the proclamation had been issued, a new 
and alarming Indian war had broken out. 

Since the capture of Fort Du Qiiesne, settlers from Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia had poured over the moun- 
tains, very little scrupulous in their conduct toward the 
Indians, who began to see and feel the danger of being soon 
driven to new migrations. Perhaps, too, their prejudices 
were influenced — so at least the colonists thought — by the 
arts of French fur traders, who dreaded the competition of 
English rivals. The Delawares and the Shawnese, who had 
lately migrated from Pennsylvania, and who now occupied 
the banks of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami, seem to 
have taken the lead in a widespread confederacy, of which 
Pontiac, a Shawnese chief, is represented to have been the 
moving spirit. It included not only the tribes lately the 
allies of the French, but the Senecas also, the most western 
clan of the Six Nations. The other five clans, though not 
without much diflaculty, were kept quiet by Sir Williamv 
Johnson. 



Revolutionary Incidents. 165 

A simultaneous attack was unexpectedly made along the 
^A'liole frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The English 
traders scattered through the region heyond the mountains, 
were plundered and slain. The posts between, the Ohio and 
Lake Erie were surprised and taken — indeed, all the posts 
in the western country, except Niagara, Detroit, and Fort 
Pitt. The two latter were closely blockaded ; and the troops 
which Amherst hastily sent forward to relieve them, did not 
reach their destination without some very hard fighting. 

This sudden onslaught, falling heaviest on Pennsylvania, 
■excited the ferocity of the back settlers, chiefly Presbyterians 
of Scotch and Irish descent, having very little in common 
with the mild spirit of the Quakers. Well versed in the 
Old Testament, the same notion had obtained among them 
current in early times of New England and Virginia, that 
as the Israelites exterminated the Canaanites, so they ought 
to exterminate the bloody, heathen Indians, stigmatized as 
the children of Ham. Under this impression, and imagining 
them to be in correspondence with the hostile Indians, some 
settlers of Paxton township attacked the remnant of a 
friendly tribe, who were living quietly under the guidance 
of Moravian missionaries at Conestoga, on the Susquehanna. 
All who fell into their hands, men, women, and children, 
were ruthlessly murdered. Those who escaped by being 
absent, fled for refuge to Lancaster, and were placed for secu- 
rity in the work-house there. The " Paxton Boys," as they 
called themselves, rushed into Lancaster, broke open the 
doors of the work-house, and perpetrated a new massacre. It 
was in vain that Franklin, lately returned from Europe, 
denounced these murders in an eloquent and indignant pam- 
phlet. Such was the fury of the mob, including many per- 
sons of respectable character and standing, that they even 
marched in arms to Philadelphia, for the destruction of some 
other friendly Indians who had taken refuge in that city. 
Thus beset, these unhappy fugitives attempted to escape to 
New York, to put themselves under the protection of Sir 
William Johnson, the Indian ao-ent ; but Lieutenant-Governor 
Golden refused to allow them to enter that province. 

John Penn, son and presumptive heir of Eichard Ponn, 
one of the joint proprietors, had lately arrived in Pennsyl- 
vania, to take Hamilton's place as governor. Politics still 



166 HiSTOKICAL AND 

ran very high ; but, in this emergency, the aid and advice 
of Franklin, the head of the opposition, and speaker of the 
Assembly, were eagerly sought. Owing to the royal veto 
on the late act for a volunteer militia, and the repeated re- 
fusals of the Assembly to establish a compulsive one, there 
was no organized military force in the province, except a few 
regular troops in the barracks at Philadelphia. By Frank- 
lin's aid, a strong body of volunteers, for the defense of the 
city, was speedily enrolled. When the insurgents approached, 
Franklin went out to meet them ; and, after a long negocia- 
tion, and agreeing to allow them to appoint two delegates to 
lay their grievances before the Assembly, they were persuaded 
to disperse without further bloodshed. So ended this most 
disgraceful affair. There was no power in the province ade- 
quate to punish these outrages. The Christian Indians 
presently re-established themselves high up the eastern 
branch of the Susquehanna. Five or six years after, des- 
tined yet to suffer further outrages, they migrated to the 
country northwest of the Ohio, and settled, with their mis- 
sionaries, in three villages on the Muskingum. 

General Gage, successor to Amherst as commander-in- 
chief of the British forces in America, had called upon the 
colonies for troops to assist in subduing the Indians. So 
extensive was the combination, that Major Loftus, while 
attempting to ascend the Mississippi with four hundred men, 
to take possessisn of the Illinois country, was attacked near 
the present site of Fort Adams, and obliged to give over the 
enterprise. New England, remote from the seat of danger, 
answered Gage's call scantily and reluctantly. Virginia 
furnished seven hundred men, and Pennsylvania one thou- 
sand. A pack of blood-hounds was sent out from England. 
Two expeditions were presently organized and sent into the 
Indian country, one under Bouquet, by way of Pittsburg, the 
other, under Bradstreet, along the lakes. The Indians, 
finding themselves thus vigorously attacked, consented to a 
treaty, by which they agreed to give up all prisoners, and to 
relinquish all claim to lands within gun-shot of any fort,. of 
which, the British were authorized to build as many as they 
chose. Indians committing murders on white men were to 
be given up, to be tried by a jury, half Indians and half 
colonists. (1764.) 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Condition of the Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Intercolonial 
War — Theory of the English Parliament — Grenville's Scheme of Colonial 
Taxation — Passage and Repeal of the Stamp Act. 

That war by which the possession of North America had 
heen confirmed to the English crown, had not been carried 
on without great efforts and sacrifices on the part of the col- 
onists. By disease or the sword, thirty thousand colonial 
soldiers had fallen in the struggle. An expense had be.en 
incurred of upward of sixteen millions of dollars, of which 
only about five millions had been reimbursed by Parliament. 
Massachusetts alone had kept from four to seven thousand 
men in the field, beside garrisons, and recruits to the regular 
regiments. These men, it is true, served but a few months 
in the year. At the approach of winter they were generally 
disbanded, and for every campaign a new army had tt) be 
raised. They were fed at British cost; yet in the course of 
the war the expenses of Massachusetts, exclusive of all par- 
liamentary reimbursements, had amounted to two millions 
and a half of dollars, all of which had been raised without 
resort to paper money, though not without incurring a heavy 
debt in addition to severe taxation. Connecticut, in the same 
period, expended not less than two million dollars. The out- 
standing debt of New York was near a million. If the 
expenditures of the southern colonies had been less profuse, 
they had far exceeded all former experience. Virginia, at 
the close of the war, had a debt of eight hundred thousand 
dollars. (1763.) 

The New England clergy complained that the morals of 
their parishioners had been corrupted by service in the 
armies ; and more disinterested observers might be willing to 

167 



168 Historical and 

admit that the reverential simplicity of rural life, however 
tinged by superstition, was ill exchanged for any liberality 
of opinions or polish of manners to be acquired in a camp. 
Yet the intermixture of troops from various colonies, must 
have tended to enlarge the circle of ideas, and partially to 
do away with local prejudices ; whilerco-operation in a common 
object, had impressed upon the colonial mind the idea of 
union and a common interest. 

The royal and proprietary governors, to obtain the neces- 
sary supplies, had been obliged to yield to perpetual encroach- 
ments. The expenditure of the great sums voted by the 
Assemblies had been kept, for the most part, in their own 
hands, or those of their specially appointed agents; and, 
contrary to what usually happens, executive influence had 
been weakened instead of strengthened by the war, or rather, 
had been transferred from the governors to the colonial 
Assemblies. 

In the prosecution of hostilities, much of the hardest and 
most dangerous service had fallen to the share of the colonial 
levies, employed especially as scouts and light troops. Though 
exceedingly disgusted by the superiority always assumed by 
the British regular officers, and allowed them by the rules 
of the service, the long continuance and splendid successes 
of the war, had filled the colonies with a martial spirit, and 
the idea of martial force had gro^m familiar, as a method, at 
once, expedient and glorious, of settling disputed points of 
authority and right. 

With colonies thus taught their strength and resources, 
full of trained soldiers, accustomed to extraordinary efforts 
and partial co-operation, the British ministry now entered on 
a new struggle — one, of which all like former contests, were 
but as faint types and forerunners. It was proposed to main- 
tain in America ten thousand troops as a peace establishment, 
nominally for the defense of the colonies; perhaps also, in 
fact, as a support to that superintending metropolitan author- 
ity, of which the weakness had been sensibly felt on various 
occasions during the war. The outbreak of the western 
Indians served, however, to show that some sort of a peace 
establishment was really necessary. 

Four great wars within seventy years, had overwhelmed 
Great Britain with heavy debts and excessive taxation. Her 



Revolutionary Incidents, 169 

recent conquests, so far from relieving her embarrassments, 
had greatly increased that debt, which now amounted to 
X140,000,000, near ;55700,000,000. Even in the midst of 
the late struggle, in the success of which they had so direct 
an interest, the military contributions of the colonial Assem- 
blies had been sometimes reluctant and capricious, and always 
irregular and unequal. They might, perhaps, refuse to con- 
tribute at all toward a standing army in time of peace, of 
which they would naturally soon come to be jealous. It 
seemed necessary, therefore, by some exertion of metropoli- 
tan authority, to extract from the colonies, for this purpose, 
a regular and certain revenue. 

At the very commencement of the late war, the Board of 
Trade had proposed a scheme of parliamentary taxation for 
the colonies. In the course of the war, Pitt had intimated 
to more than one colonial governor, that, when it was over, 
the authority of Parliament would be exerted to draw from 
America the means for its own defense. Peace was no 
sooner established, than Pitt's successors in the ministry 
hastened to carry out the scheme thus foreshadowed. 

That Parliament possessed a certain authority over the 
colonies, in some respects super-eminent, was admitted by all ; 
but the exact limits of that authority had never been very 
accurately settled. As against the royal prerogative, the 
colonists had been eager to claim the benefits of English 
law ; not the common law only, but all statutes, such as the 
Habeas Corpus Act, of a remedial and popular character. 
There were other statutes, however, the Mutiny Act, for in- 
stance, from which they sought to escape on the ground of 
non-extension to America. Against the interference of Par- 
liament in matters of trade, most of the colonies, especially 
those of New England, had carried on a pertinacious struggle. 
In spite, however, of opposition, that interference had been 
extended from tho trade of the colonies with foreign nations 
and each other, to many other matters but remotely connected 
with it. By the English post-office system, introduced into 
America, the transportation of mails and the rates of postage 
had been regulated. Parliament had interfered with the 
colonial currency, establishing the standard in coin, and re- 
stricting the issue of paper notes. Joint-stock companies, 
with more than a certain number of partners, had been 
15 



170 Historical and 

j)roliibited. The collection of debts had been regulated. A 
uniform law of naturalization had been established. Parlia- 
ment had prohibited or restricted certain trades and manu- 
factures, and had even assumed to legislate respecting the 
administration of oaths. All or most of these exertions of 
authority had been protested against at the time ; but the 
colonists had yielded at last, and the power of regulating 
colonial trade for the exclusive benefit of the mother country, 
exercised for two or three generations, and sustained by a 
system of custom-house officers and Admiralty courts, had 
acquired, in spite of unpopularity and a systematic evasion 
still extensively practiced, the character and attributes of a 
legal vested right. (1763.) 

The super-eminent power of all, that of levying taxes for 
revenue. Parliament had never exercised. The rates of post- 
age, of which the payment was voluntary, might be con- 
sidered not so much a tax as an equivalent for services 
rendered. The intercolonial duties on " enumerated articles," 
producing little more than sufficient to pay the expenses of 
the custom-houses, had for their professed object, not revenue, 
but the regulation of trade. The trifling surplus paid into 
the British treasury was but a mere incident to that regula- 
tion. Yet the colonial custom-houses, though hitherto main- 
tained with no intention of collecting taxes, might easily be 
adapted to that purpose ; and, as the colonists were already 
accustomed to the payment of parliamentary duties, they 
"might not readily distinguish between duties for regulation 
and duties for revenue. 

A part of the new scheme, as suggested to Parliament by 
Lord Granville, Bute's chancellor of' the Exchequer, appears 
to have proceeded on this idea. In spite of recent vigilance 
in the enforcement of the acts of trade, the Molasses Act was 
still extensively evaded. By reducing the duties exacted 
under that act, now about to expire, Grenville proposed to 
diminish the temptation to smuggle ; and, while seeming thus 
to confer a boon on the colonies, by opening to them, under 
moderated duties, the trade with the foreign sugar islands, 
by the same process, to convert the Molasses Act from a mere 
regulation of trade, into a source of revenue, to be enhanced 
by duties on other foreign products. Had the proposition 
stopped here, there might have been some chance of gradually 



Eevolutio.vary Incidents. 171 

forcing on the colonies tlie practice of parliamentary taxation. 
But tlie amount which could thus he raised would not suffice 
for the ohject in view, and Grenyille proposed, in addition, a 
stamp tax — an impost, in several respects, much like those 
of the custom-house, and very like them in facility of collec- 
tion. All hills, honds, notes, leases, policies of insurance, 
papers used in legal proceedings, and a great many other 
documents, in order to be held valid in courts of law, were 
to be written on stamped paper, sold by public officers ap- 
pointed for that purpose, at prices which levied a stated tax 
on every such document. Stamp duties, said to be an inven- 
tion of the Dutch, though long familiar in England, were 
as yet almost unknown in America, where only one or two 
colonies had made some slight trial of them. 

Shortly after the final treaty of peace, Grenville laid this 
plan before Parliament, not for immediate action, but by 
way of information and notice. Tlie colonial agents, or some 
of them, wrote to America for instructions, but the public 
mind was engrossed by the sudden renewal of the war on the 
western frontier, and Grenville's proposition hardly attracted 
so much attention as might have been expected. The As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania was content with simply stating a 
willingness "to aid the crown according to their ability, 
whenever required in the usual constitutional manner." 
They even proposed to forward a plan by which all the colo- 
nies might be made to contribute fairly and equitably to the 
public defense ; but that idea they soon abandoned. 

BoUan, so long the agent of Massachusetts, had been lately 
dismissed, and the place given to Jasper Manduit, whose 
letters, containing an account of Grenville's proposals, were 
laid before the General Court at an adjourned session. There 
seems at this moment to have been a lull in the politics of 
that province. The excitement growing out of the question 
of writs of assistance had subsided. Hutchinson, who still 
sat in the council, in spite of Otis's attempt to exclude him, 
had a principal hand in drawing up the instructions to the 
agent. They suggested, indeed, the right of the colonists to 
tax themselves, but in a very moderate tone. It was even 
voted to send Hutchinson as a special agent to England ; but 
this was prevented by Governor Bernard,who thought it irregu- 
lar for the lieutenant-governor to be absent from the province. 



172 Historical and 

At the next session of Parliament, Grenville, now prime 
minister, brought forward his scheme of taxation in a more 
formal shape. After a debate which excited very little 
interest or attention, the House of Commons resolved, without 
a, division, " that Parliament had a right to tax the colonies," 
and they recommended such a stamp act as the minister had 
proposed. 

Further action as to this stamp tax was, however, delayed, 
to give the colonists an opportunity for suggesting, if they 
chose, some more satisfactory means for raising the half mil- 
lion of dollars which the minister required. The other part 
of the ministerial scheme was at once carried out by a law 
known as the " Sugar Act," reducing by one half, the duties 
imposed by the old Molasses Act on foreign sugar and molasses 
imported into the colonies ; levying duties on coffee, pimento, 
French and East India goods, and wines from Madeira and the 
Azores, which hitherto had been free ; and adding iron and 
lumber to the list of '* enumerated articles," which could not 
be exported, except to England. Openly avowing in its pre- 
amble the purpose of " raising a revenue for defraying the 
expenses of defending, protecting, and securing his majesty's 
dominions in America," this act gave increased jurisdiction 
to the colonial Admiralty courts, and provided new and more 
Cifficient means for enforcing the collection of the revenue. 

Partial accounts of these proceedings having reached Mas- 
sachusetts previous to the annual election, the town of Boston 
took occasion to instruct its newly-chosen representatives to 
use all their efforts against the pending plan of parliament 
taxation, and for the repeal of any such acts already passed. 
These instructions, drafted by Samuel Adams, contained the 
first decided protest against Grenville's scheme. Among 
other things, they suggested the expediency of a combination 
of all the colonies for the defense of their common interests. 

At the session which speedily followed, the House of Eep- 
resentatives resolved, " that the imposition of duties and 
taxes by the Parliament of Great Britain, upon a people not 
represented in the House of Commons, is absolutely irrecon- 
cilable with their rights." A pamphlet, lately published by 
Otis, " The Eights of the British Colonies asserted," was 
read and approved. A copy was transmitted to the agent in 
England, and along with it an energetic letter. " The silence 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 173 

of tlie province," said this letter, alluding to a suggestion of 
the agent, that he had taken silence for consent, " should 
liave heen imputed to any cause — even to despair — rather 
than be construed into a tacit cession of their rights, or the 
acknowledgment of a right in the Parliament of Great Britain 
to impose duties and taxes on a people who are not rep- 
resented in the House of Commons." " If we are not 
represented, we are slaves !" 

Following up the suggestions of the Boston instructions, a 
committee was appointed to correspond, during the recess, 
with the Assemblies of the other colonies. 

These energetic measures, warmly supported by Thatcher 
and Otis, were adopted just at the close of the session, and 
in Hutchinson's absence. The concurrence of the council was 
not asked. Not that any open advocates for parliamentary 
taxation were to be found in that body ; even Governor Ber- 
nard avowed his opposition, at least, to the proposed Stamp 
Act ; but the council, for years past very much under Hutch- 
inson's influence, was composed of wealthy and moderate 
men, who might not choose to venture on so vigorous a 
remonstrance. 

Otis's pamphlet on colonial rights conceded to Parliament 
a superintending power to enact laws and regulations for the 
public good — a power limited, however, by the "natural 
rights of man," and " the constitutional rights of British 
subjects," claimed as the birthright of all born in the colo- 
nies. It was maintained as one of these rights, that taxes 
could not be levied on the people, "but by their consent in 
person or by deputation." The distinction was scouted be- 
tween external and internal taxes, meaning in the one case, 
taxes on trade, and in the other, taxes on land and personal 
property. If trade might be taxed without the consent of 
the colonists, so might laud and houses. Taxes of either 
kind were pronounced " absolutely irreconcilable with the 
rights of the colonists as British subjects and as men." Yet 
nothing like forcible resistance was hinted at. " There 
would be an end to all governments, if one, or a number of 
subjects or subordinate provinces, should take upon them so 
far to judge of the justice of an act of Parliament, as to 
refuse obedience to it." "Forcibly resisting the Parliament 
and the king's laws is high treason." " Therefore let the 
15* 



174 Historical and 

Parliament lay what burdens they please on us, we must, 
it is our duty to submit, and patiently bear them till they 
will be pleased to relieve us." Such, at this moment, were 
the public professions, and most probably the private opinions 
of the strongest advocates of the rights of the colonists — at 
least of those who had been bred, like Otis, to the profession 
of the law. But this doctrine of patient submission to injus- 
tice, was not of a sort to go down in America. 

Thatcher also published a tract against the scheme of par- 
liamentary taxation, and similar tracts were put forth in 
Rhode Island "by authority;" in Maryland by Dulany, sec- 
retary of the province ; and in Virginia by Bland, a leading 
member of the House of Burgesses. 

The opposition of Massachusetts to the new " Sugar Act," 
was presently re-echoed from Pennsylvania, and strong in- 
structions to oppose the whole scheme of taxation were given 
to Franklin, about to depart for England as the agent for 
the colony, to solicit the overthrow of the proprietary govern- 
ment. 

At the adjourned session of the Massachusetts General 
Court, the powerful influence of Hutchinson again became 
obvious. The House adopted a strong petition to Parlia- 
ment, drawn by a committee of which Otis was chairman. 
The council refused to concur. A joint committee then ap- 
pointed, reported a petition to the House of Commons, drafted 
by Hutchinson, and not at all to the taste of the more ardent 
patriots. Yet, after some alterations, it was adopted by the 
Court. A letter to the agent, in a somewhat more decided 
tone, spoke of self-taxation as the right of the colony, not 
as a mere usage and favor, in which light the petition seemed 
to regard it. 

Connecticut, following in the steps of Massachusetts, 
adopted the same moderate tone. The Assembly of New 
York agreed to a petition much more strongly expressed — 
so strongly, that no member of Parliament could be found to 
present it. This petition, adopted and re-echoed by Ehode 
Island, made the Massachusetts leaders still more dissatisfied 
with the tameness of theirs. 

In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Peyton Randolph, the 
attorney-general, conspicuous formerly in the controversy 
with Dinwiddie, Richard Henry Lee, son of a former president 



J 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 175 

of tlie council, George Wythe, and Edmund Pendleton, all 
distinguished lawyers and leaders of the colonial aristocracy, 
were appointed a committee to draw up a petition to the king, 
a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the 
Commons. These papers claimed for the colony, the priv- 
ilege of self-taxation ; but their tone was very moderate. 
Instead of relying on the matter of right, they dwelt at 
length on the embarassments and poverty of the province, 
encumbered by the late war with a heavy debt. 

These faint protestations produced no effect on the made 
up minds of the British ministers. In spite of remonstrances 
addressed to Grenville by Franklin, Jackson, the newly-ap- 
pointed agent of Massachusetts, IngersoU, the agent for 
Connecticut, and other gentlemen interested in the colonies, 
a bill for collecting a stamp tax in America was presently 
brought in. The London merchants concerned in the Amer- 
ican trade petitioned against it ; but a convenient rule not to 
receive petitions against money bills, excluded this as well as 
those from the colonial Assemblies. In reply to Colonel 
Barre, who had served in America, and who made a speech 
against the bill, Townshend, one of the ministers, spoke of 
the colonists as " children, planted by our care, nourished by 
our indulgence, and protected by our arms." Barre's indig- 
nant retort produced a great sensation in the House. " They 
planted by your care ? No ; your oppressions planted them 
in America." " They nourished by your indulgence '? They 
grew up by your neglect of thom." " They protected by 
your arms? Those sons of liberty have nobly taken up 
arms in your defense. I claim to know more of America 
than most of you, having been resident in that country. , 
The people, I believe, are as truly loyal subjects as the king 
has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vin- 
dicate them, should they ever be violated. But the subject 
is too delicate ; I will say no more." Barre placed his oppo- 
sition on the ground of expediency ; General Conway, and 
Alderman Beckford, one of the London members, denounced 
the bill as unjust. It passed, however, in the Commons, five 
to one ; in the Lords there was no division nor the slio^htest 
opposition. (1765.) 

A clause inserted into the annual Mutiny Act, carried out 
another part of the ministerial scheme, by authorizing as 



176 Historical and 

many troops to be sent to America as the ministers saw fit. 
For these troops, by a special enactment, known as "the- 
Quartering Act," the colonies in which they might be sta- 
tioned, were required to find quarters, fire-wood, bedding,, 
drink, soap, and candles. 

News of the passage of these acts, reached Virginia whil& 
the Assembly was sitting. The aristocratic leaders in that 
body hesitated. The session approached its close, and not 
one word seemed likely to be said. But the rights of the 
colonies did not fail of an advocate. Patrick Henry had 
already attracted the attention of the House, by his suc- 
cessful opposition to Kobiuson's proposed paper money 
loan, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Finding the 
older and more weighty members unlikely to move, he 
assumed the responsibility of introducing a series of resolu- 
tions, which claimed for the inhabitants of Virginia all the 
rights of born British subjects; denied any authority any- 
where, except in the provincial Assembly, to impose taxes 
upon them ; and denounced the attempt to vest that authori- 
ty elsewhere, as inconsistent with the ancient Constitution, 
and subversive of British as well as of American liberty. 
Upon the introduction of these resolutions, a hot debate en- 
sued, " Caesar had his Brutus," said Henry, " Charles I. his 
Cromwell, and George III. — " " Treason ! treason !" shouted 
the speaker, and the cry was re-echoed from the House. 
" George III.," said Henry, firmly, " may profit by their ex- 
ample. If that be treason, make the most of it !" In spite 
of the opposition of all the old leaders, the resolutions passed, 
the fifth and most emphatic, by a majority of only one vote. 
The next day, in Henry's absence, the resolutions were recon- 
sidered, softened, and the fifth struck out. But a manuscript 
copy had already been sent to Philadelphia ; and, circulating- 
through the colonies in their original form, these resolutions 
gave everywhere a strong impulse to the popular feeling. 

Before these Virginia resolutions reached Massachusetts, 
the General Court had met, at its annual session. Consider- 
ing " the many difiiculties to which the colonies are, and 
must be reduced by the operation of some late acts of Par- 
liament," the House of Kepresentatives appointed a commit- 
tee of nine, to consider what steps the emergency demanded. 
That committee recommended a convention or congress, lo be 



Kevolutiqnary Incidents. 177 

composed of " committees from the Houses of Eepresentac 
tives or Burgesses iu the several colonies," to meet at New 
York on the first Tuesday of October following, there to con- 
sult " on the difficulties in which the colonies were, and must 
he placed by the late acts of Parliament levying duties and 
taxes upon them ;" and, further, " to consider of a general 
and humble address to his majesty and the Parliament, to 
implore relief." Even the partisans of Bernard judged it 
best to concur in the adoption of this report ; and they con- 
gratulated themselves that Ruggles and Partridge, two of 
the committee appointed to represent Massachusetts at the 
congress, were " prudent and discreet men, fast friends of 
government." The third was James Otis. A circular let- 
ter, addressed to all the other colonies, recommended similar 
appointments. Governor Fitch and a majority of the Con- 
necticut assistants, seemed inclined to submit to the Stamp 
Act, but Trumbull and others loudly protested against it, and 
the popular feeling was all on their side. 

The stamps were to be prepared in Great Britain, and sent 
to officers in the colonies, appointed to sell them. Anxious 
to make this unpopular measure as palatable as possible, the 
colonial agents were consulted as to the persons fit to be ap- 
pointed. So little did even Franklin foresee the result, that 
he procured that office at Philadelphia for one of his particu- 
lar friends and supporters. He also advised Ingersoll, 
the Connecticut agent, to accept that appointment for his 
own colony. 

Before the stamps reached America, symptoms of a violent 
ferment appeared. A great elm in Boston, at the corner of 
the present Washington and Essex Streets, under which the 
opponents of the Stamp Act were accustomed to assemble, 
soon became famous as " liberty tree." Those persons sup- 
posed to favor the ministry were hung in effigy on the 
branches of this elm. A mob attacked the house of Oliver, 
secretary of the colony, who had been appointed stamp dis- 
tributor for Massachusetts, broke his windows, destroyed his 
furniture, pulled down a small building, supposed to be in- 
tended for a stamp office, and frightened Oliver into a 
resignation. Jonathan Mayhew, the able minister of the 
West Church, in Boston — distinguished by some recent con- 
troversial tracts, in which he had severely criticised the 



173 Historical and 

conduct of tlie Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 
maintaining Episcopal missionaries in New England — preach- 
ed a warm sermon against the Stamp Act, taking for his 
text, " I would they were even cut oft* which trouble you !" The 
Monday evening after this sermon the riots were renewed. 
The mob attacked the house of Story, registrar of the Ad- 
miralty, and destroyed not only the public files and records, 
but his private papers also. Next they entered and plun- 
dered the house of the controller of customs ; and, maddened 
with liquor and excitement, proceeded to the mansion of 
Hutchinson, in North Square. The lieutenant-governor and 
his family fled for their lives. The house was completely 
gutted, and the contents burned in bonfires, kindled in the 
squai'e. Along with Hutchinson's furniture and private pa- 
pers, perished many invaluable manuscripts relating to the 
history of the province, which Hutchinson had been thirty 
years in collecting, and which it was impossible to replace. 

As commonly happens on such occasions, the immediate 
actors in these scenes were persons of no note, the dregs of 
the population. Mayhew sent the next day a special apology 
and disclaimer to Hutchinson. The inhabitants of Boston, 
at a town meeting, unanimously expressed their "abhor- 
rence " of these proceedings ; and a " civic guard " was organ- 
ized to prevent their repetition. Yet the rioters, though well 
known, went unpunished — a sure sign of the secret concur- 
rence and good-will of the mass of the community. It is 
only in reliance on such encouragement, that mobs ever 
venture to commit deeds of violence. Those now committed 
were revolutionary acts, designed to intimidate — melancholy 
forerunners of civil war. 

Throughout the northern colonies, associations on the basis 
of forcible resistance to the Stamp Act, under the name of 
" Sons of Liberty " — a title borrowed from Barre's famous 
speech — sprung suddenly into existence. Persons of influ- 
ence and consideration, though they might favor the object, 
kept aloof, however, from so dangerous a combination, which 
consisted of the young, the ardent, those who loved excite- 
ment, and had nothing to lose. The history of these " Sons 
of Liberty " is very obscure ; but they seem to have spread 
rapidly from Connecticut and New York into Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and to have taken up, aa 



Revolutionary Incidents. 179 

rfcheir special business, the intimidation of the stamp officers. 
In all the colonies, those officers were persuaded or compelled 
to resign ; and such stamps as arrived either remained un- 
packed, or else were seized and burned. The Assembly of 
•Pennsylvania unanimously adopted a series of resolutions, 
denouncing the Stamp Act as " unconstitutional, and sub- 
versive of their dearest rights." Public meetings to protest 
against it, were held throughout the colonies. The holding 
of such meetings was quite a new incident, and formed a new 
■era in colonial history. 

In the midst of this universal excitement, at the day 
appointed by Massachusetts, committees from nine colonies 
met in New York. The Assemblies of Virginia and North 
Carolina not having been in session since the issue of the 
Massachusetts circular, no opportunity had occurred of appoint- 
ing committees. New York was in the same predicament ; 
but a committee of correspondence, appointed at a previous 
session, saw fit to attend. In Georgia, Governor Wright 
refused to call the Assembly together ; but the speaker of 
the House of Eepresentatives, after consulting with a major- 
ity of the members, sent a letter to New York approving the 
proposed congress, and promising to support its measures. 
The New Hampshire House of Representatives gave their 
sanction to the congress, and offi^red to join in any suitable 
memorial ; but, " owing to the particular state of their affiiirs" 
by which may be understood the predominant influence of 
Governor Wentworth, they sent no delegates. Dr. Franklin, 
about the close of his first agency in England, had obtained 
the post of Governor of New Jersey, vacated by Hardy, for 
his natural and only son, William Franklin. The new gov- 
ernor, who inherited all the prudence, with none of the patri- 
otic ardor of his father, had prevailed upon the Assembly of 
that province to return a negative answer to the Massachu- 
setts letter ; but this proved so unsatisfactory to the people, 
that the speaker called the members together by circular, 
and delegates were appointed. 

The Congress was organized by the appointment of Rug- 
gles as president. There were present, among other mem- 
bers, beside Otis, of Massachusetts, AVilliam Johnson, of 
Oonnecticut ; Philip Livingston, of New York ; John Dickin- 
son, of Pennsylvania; Thomas M'Kean, of Delaware, and 



180 Historical and 

Christopher Gadsden and John Rutledge, of South Caroliiia, 
all subsequently distinguished in the history of the Revolu- 
tion. A rule was adopted, giving to each colony represented, 
one vote. 

In the course of a three weeks' session, a Declaration of 
the Rights and Grievances of the Colonies was agreed to. 
All the privileges of Englishmen were claimed by this decla- 
tion, as the birthright of the colonists — among the rest, the 
right of being taxed only by their own consent. Since dis- 
tance and local circumstances made a representation in the 
British Parliament impossible, these representatives, it was 
maintained, could be no other than the several colonial Legis- 
latures. Thus was given a flat negative to a scheme lately 
broached in England by Pownall and others, for allowing to 
the colonies a representation in Parliament, a project to which 
both Otis and Franklin seem at first to have leaned. 

A petition to the king, and memorials to each House of 
Parliament were also prepared, in which the cause of the 
colonies was eloquently pleaded. Ruggles refused to sign 
these papers, on the ground that they ought first to bo 
approved by the several Assemblies, and should be forwarded 
to England as their acts. Ogden, one of the New Jersey 
delegates, withheld his signature on the same plea. The 
delegates from New York did not sign because they had no 
special authority for their attendance ; nor did those of Con- 
necticut or South Carolina, their commission restricting 
them to a "report to their respective Assemblies. The peti- 
tion and memorials, signed by the other delegates, were 
transmitted to England for presentation. 

The several colonial Assemblies, at their earliest sessions, 
gave to the proceedings a cordial approval. The conduct of 
Ruggles, in refusing his signature, was severely censured by 
the Massachusetts representatives. Ogden was burned in 
efligy by the people of New Jersey. 

The first day of November, appointed for the Stamp act to 
go into operation, came and went, but not a stamp was any- 
where to be seen. Two companies of rioters paraded that 
evening the streets of New York, demanding the delivery of 
the stamps, which Colden, on the resignation of the stamp 
distributor, and his refusal to receive them, had taken into 
the fort. Colden was hung in effigy. His carriage was 



Revolutionary Incidents. 181 

seized, and made a bonfire of, under the muzzles of the guns ; 
after which the mob proceeded to a house in the outskirts, 
then occupied by Major James, of the Eoyal artillery, who 
had made himself obnoxious by his free comments on the con- 
duct of the colonists. James' furniture and property were 
destroyed, as Hutchinson's had been. General Gage, the 
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was at 
New York, but the regular garrison in the fort was very 
small. Alarmed for the safety of the city, and not willing 
to take any responsibility, as Sir Henry Moore, the recently 
appointed governor, was every day expected, Golden agreed 
by Gage's advice, the captain of a British ship of war in the 
harbor having refused to receive them, to give up the stamps 
to the mayor and corporation. They were accordingly depos- 
ited in the City Hall, under a receipt given by the Mayor. 

These proceedings had been under the control of the infe- 
rior class of people, of whom Isaac Sears, formerly a ship- 
master, and now inspector of potashes, was a conspicuous 
leader. The next day a meeting was called of the wealthier 
inhabitants, and a committee was appointed, of which Sears 
was a member, with four colleagues, to correspond with the 
other colonies. This committee soon brought forward an 
agreement to import no more goods from Great Britain till 
the Stamp Act was repealed — the commencement of a system 
of retaliation on the mother country repeatedly resorted to 
in the course of the struggle. This non-importation agree- 
ment, to which a non-consumption agreement was presently 
added, beside being extensively signed in New York, was 
adopted also in Philadelphia and Boston. At the same time, 
and as part of the same plan, a combination was entered into 
for the support of American manufactures, the wearing of 
American cloths, and the increase of sheep, by ceasing to eat 
lamb or mutton. 

Business, suspended for a while, was presently resumed. 
Stamped papers were required in judicial proceedings, but by 
continuing the cases before them, or going on without notice 
of the deficiency, even the judges, after some hesitation, con- 
curred in nullifying the act. 

A change in the English ministry, which took place in 
July, and the news of which reached America in September, 
16 



182 Historical and 

encouraged the colonists in the stand they had taken. This 
change originated in domestic reasons, wholly unconnected 
with colonial polity ; it was regarded, however, as favorable 
fo the general cause of freedom. The old Whig aristocracy, 
which had governed the kingdom since the accession of the 
house of Hanover, had split up, of late, into several bitter 
and hostile factions, chiefly founded on mere personal consid- 
erations. Pitt's repeated attacks on former ministries, and, 
at last, his forcing himself into power, had contributed not a 
little to this result. The accession of George III, had given 
rise to a new party, by wliich Pitt himself had been super- 
seded — a party which called- themselves " king's friends," 
composed partly of political adventurers from among the 
Whigs, such as Grenville, the late minister, but partly also 
of the representatives of the old Tory families, for half a 
century previous excluded by the Whigs from office. These 
" king's friends" were regarded as hostile to popular rights, 
and were looked upon by the great body of the middle class 
with very jealous eyes. It was their distinguishing doctrine, 
that the authority of the king had been usurped and en- 
croached upon by the House of Commons. The Marquis of 
Rjckingham, the new minister, leader of one of the frag- 
ments of the old Whig party, was liberally disposed ; but 
as yet, there liardly existed in England a popular party, in 
our American sense. The interests of trade and manufac- 
tures were not, indeed, without their representatives, chosen 
from some of the large towns, but a great part of the 
boroughs were "rotten" — the property, that is, of one or 
more individuals, who, in fact, named the representatives; 
while money, in the shape of bribes, decided the choice in 
many of the rest. The House of Commons represented a 
narrow aristocracy, the majority of the members being sub- 
stantially nominated by the great landholders. The House,, 
thus chosen, debated with closed doors, only a few spectators 
being admitted, as a special favor. To publish an account 
of their proceedings was a breach of privilege, and only 
brief and imperfect sketches, even of the principal debates, 
found their way into print. Faint signs were but just be- 
ginning to appear, of that social revolution which has created 
the modern popular party of Great Britain and Europe, 
giving complete publicity to legislative proceedings, and 



Kevolutionaky Incidents. 183 

organizing public opinion as a regular and ptowerful check 
upon authority. 

In the address from the throne, at the opening of the 
session, the new ministry brought the state of colonial affairs 
before Parliament. They produced the correspondence of the 
colonial governors, and other papers relating to the late dis- 
turbance. Numerous petitions from British merchants, for 
the repeal of the Stamp Act, we're also presented to the two 
Houses. (1766.) 

Pitt, for some time past withdrawn by sickness from pub- 
lic affairs, was unconnected, at this moment, with either 
Grenville's or Eockingham's party. He now appeared in his 
place in the House of Commons, and delivered his opinion, 
" that the kingdom had no right to levy a tax on th^ col- 
onies." " The Commons in America, represented in their 
several assemblies, have invariably exercised the constitu- 
tional right of giving and granting their own money ; they 
would have been slaves if they had not ; at the same time, 
this kingdom has ever possessed the power of legislative and 
commercial control. The colonies acknowledge your author- 
ity in all things, with the sole exception that you shall not 
take their money out of their pockets without their consent." 

This decided avowal by Pitt, made a profound impression 
on the House. After a long pause, Grenville rose to vindi- 
cate the Stamp Act. The tumults in America bordered, he 
averred, on open rebellion ; but if the doctrines now promul- 
gated were upheld, they would soon lose that nanie, and be- 
come a revolution. Taxation was a branch of the sovereign 
power, constantly exercised by Parliament, over the unrepre- 
sented. Kesorting, then, to a method of intimidation com- 
mon with politicians, " the seditious spirit of the colonies," 
he said, " owes its birth to the faction in this House." This 
invidious assault was met by Pitt with characteristic intrepid- 
ity. " A charge, is brought against gentlemen sitting in 
this House, of giving birth to sedition in America. The 
freedom with which they have spoken their sentiments 
against this unhapp}'- act, is imputed to them as a crime. 
But the imputation shall not discourage me." " We are told 
America is obstinate — America is almost in open rebellion. 
Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of 
people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to 



134 Historical and 

submit to beij. slaves, would have been fit instruments to make 
slaves of all tbe rest." " The Americans have been wronged ! 
They have been driven to madness by injustice ! Will you 
punish them for the madness you have occasioned ? No ! 
Let this country be the first to resume its prudence and tem- 
per ; I will pledge myself for the colonies, that on their 
part, animosity and resentment will cease." 

The new ministry were under no obligation to support tlie 
policy of their predecessors. Anxious to escape the difficulty 
by the readiest means, they brought in a bill for repealing 
the Stamp Act. Franklin, summoned to the bar of the 
House as a witness, testified that the act could never be en- 
forced. His prompt and pointed answers gained him great 
credit for information, acuteness, and presence of mind. In 
favor of repeal, Burke, introduced into Parliament by 
Rockingham, to whom he had been private secretary, and 
for one of whose rotten boroughs he sat, gave his eloquent 
support. In spite of a very strenuous opposition on the part 
of the supporters of the late ministry, the bill of repeal was 
carried in the House of Commons, by a vote of two hundred 
and seventy-five to one hundred and sixty-seven. 

But the ministers by no means went the length of Pitt. 
They placed the repeal on the ground of expediency merely, 
and they softened the opposition by another bill, previously 
passed, which asserted the power and right of Parliament 
'* to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Lord Cam- 
den, formerly Chief-justice Pratt, made a vigorous opposition 
to this bill, in the House of Lords. " My position is this — I 
repeat it — I will maintain it to the last hour — taxation and 
representation are inseparable. The position is founded in 
the law of nature. It is more : it is itself an eternal law 
of nature." Lord Mansfield, on the other hand, maintained 
the sovereign power of Parliament as including the right to 
tax ; an idea quite too flattering to the pride of authority to 
bo easily relinquished. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Dawn of the Revolutionary Period — Humorous " History of John BuU'a 
Children " — Contrast between causes which led to the Revolution of 1688, 
in England, and those which led to the American Revolution ; from Judge 
Drayton's Charge, in 1776. 

We now come to a new era of struggle, in the history of 
^' Sam," by, and through which, his youthful prowess, thus 
continually exercised, as we have witnessed, becomes meet 
for successful collison with the uttermost force which is likely 
to array itself against his future. He has one more covert 
foe, with whom it is necessary that he should be finally " at 
quits," and who, (though not necessarily an internal one 
as are the Jesuits !) is yet, through his machinations, as 
dangerous, and even more important. 

As usual, with the most serious affairs of the kind — it is 
a family quarrel, in which his elder first cousin, John Bull, 
assumes a domineering and pugilistic attitude, to the great 
tribulation of Sam — who, for the very reason that he was 
l3orn of nothing but a cloud, was particularly sensitive about 
the matter of descent, primogeniture, reversions, titles, etc. 
Now all this may seem to have been very inconsistent on his 
part, but a slight sketch of his family history about those 
times, will illustrate these traits of Sam sufficiently. 

"THE HISTORY OF JOHN BULL's CHILDREN." 

We find the following in the '^Maryland Gazette^' of 
August, 1776, into which it was copied from the ^'London 
Chronicle.'* 

I, Sir Humphrey Polesworth, who formerly gave the world 
i^, true and faithful account of John Bull, and of his mother, 
16* 185 



186 Historical and 

and his sister, and wives, and his servants, now write the 
history of his children, and how they were got, and how they 
were educated, and what befell them. Courteous reader, if 
thou hast any curiosity to know these things, read the follow- 
ing chapters, and learn. 

Chapter l — Of seven natural children, which John Bull 
had in his younger days by Doll Secretary, his mother's 
maid; namely, three boys, John, junior, or master Jacky, 
Yorky, and Jerry: four girls, Penelope, Mary, Virgy, and 
Caroline. How the old lady would suffer no bastards in her 
family ; and how the poor inffftits were turned adrift on the 
fish-ponds as soon as born ; how they landed on the western 
shore, and were there nursed by a wild bear, all under the 
green wood tree. 

Chapter ii. — How John disowned them, and left them to 
get over the children's disorders the. best way they could, 
without paying a farthing for nurses, or apothecary's bills ; 
and how, as soon as they had cut their eye-teeth, and were 
able to walk alone, John claimed them for his own. 

Chapter in. — How Master Jacky turned fisherman and 
ship-carpenter. Yorky and Jerry drove a great trade; Miss 
Penny dealt in flour, called the Maid of the Mill, and never 
courtesied to anybody. How Mary and Virgy set up a 
snuff'-shop ; and Caroline turned dry Salter, and sold indigo ; 
and how they all flourished exceedingly, and laid out every 
penny they earned, in their father's warehouse. 

Chapter rv. — Of two children more, that John had after- 
ward, in lawful wedlock (viz : a boy whom he called Georgy, 
after his great patron, and a girl, wliom he called Peg, after 
his sister Margaret) ; how he crammed them with sugar- 
plums, and how they remain sickly, rickety brats to this day. 

Chapter v. — How young Master Baboon, old Louis' only 
son, fell in love with Miss Virgy, and how he came behind 
with intent to ravish her ; how she squealed, and alarmed 
her dad. 

Chapter vi. — How John called for his stick and his barge, 
and crossed the pond to save his daughter's virtue ; how 
young Louis gave him a confounded rap on his fingers and 
drove him back ; then at his daughter again. 

Chapter vii. — How her brother Jack came to her assist- 
ance, and threw young Louis on his back ; how old Louis 



Revolutionary Incidents, 1S7 

Baboon flew to help his son, and carried Lord Strutt along 
with him ; how John Bull returned and mustered all his 
children at his back, and to it they went. 

Chapter vin. — How they had a long tussle ; how John's 
children savetl their old dad from a broken head, and helped 
to seize young- Louis and tie him ; how the old folks agreed 
to leave young Louis in custody, and drink friends them- 
selves ; and how John jnade his children pay a share of the 
reckoning, without giving them any of the drink. 

Chapter ix. — How John, in his cups, bragged of his exploits, 
and said he had done all himself, and his children nothing ; 
how he made choice of fair George, the gentle shepherd, for 
his house-steward, and because he could tell, without the book, 
that two and three make five, and had the multiplication 
table by heart. 

Chapter x. — The .whole stewardship of fair George — how 
he neglected to protest Louis Baboon's note of hand on the 
day of payment, and released Lord Strutt from a mortgage on 
his manor of Eastland ; how he took an aversion to cider, and 
would allow none to be drunk in his family ; how he rum- 
maged every man's chest for pen, ink, and paper, and obliged 
those he caught writing, to stand atop of the table, with a 
wooden neckcloth under their chin, while he counted sixty 
times sixty ; and how this is called the gentle shepherd's 
benefit of the clergy, unto this day. 

Chapter xi. — How fair George took an antipathy to John's 
children, because he said they put nothing into the box at 
Christmas ; and when they came to pay their shop accounts, 
they brought in their money at the back door ; how he advised 
John to brand them on the far buttock, as they do stray 
cattle, that he might know them as his own. 

Chapter xii. — How John's children rode restive, and swore 
they would not have the broad R. stamped on their b — k- 
s — des ; how John, in heating the irons, burnt his own fingers, 
most d — ly ; how all his neighbors laughed, and fair George 
could not find him a plaster. 

Chapter xiii. — How John, in a passion, kicked fair George 
down stairs, and rung up other servants ; how they advised 
him to consult his wife ; and * how Mrs. Bull advised him to 
let his children alone ; that, though they were born in sin, they 
were his own flesh and blood, and needed no stamp to show 



188 lIlSTOKICAL AND 

it ; liow Jolin took her advice, and let the irons cool again ; 
and how some suspected if John's fingers had not smarted he 
would not have complied so soon. 

Chapter xiv. — A dialogue on education, between fair 
•George and lame Will. How Will proved it to be both cruel 
and impolitic to pinch children till they cried, and then pinch 
them for crying ; and how George answered and said nothing. 

Chapter xv. — How John, by means of his new servants, 
became beloved of his children, and respected by his neigh- 
bors ; how he obliged Louis Baboon to beat down the walls of 
Ecclesdown castle, because it overlooked his pond, and har- 
bored seagulls, to gobble up his fish . How he made him also 
pay up his note of hand ; and how Lord Strutt . 

What Lord Strutt did, does not appear, but this veracious 
narrator of the olden time, has furnished us with a genealo- 
gical treatise, invaluable in itself, and highly illustrative of 
many striking peculiarities, which we find to be even at this 
day, the distinctive family traits of " Sam," who has clearly 
inherited many of the good as well as bad qualities com- 
plained of, and portrayed above in the character of his an- 
cestor, John Bull. Though Sam is in this instance the 
rather graphic complainant, yet we have endeavored to show, 
that in many instances since, his own conduct would have 
been no discredit to the attributes of the venerable elder 
John, himself! 

But that " Sam " now began to have real causes of com- 
plaint, we shall perceive by the following " catalogue of op- 
pressions, and contrast of the causes which led to the revolution 
which deposed James IL, and those which led to the Ameri- 
can Revolution." This valuable document is from 

JUDGE Drayton's charge, 

At an adjournment of the Court of General Sessions of 
THE Peace, Oyer and Terminer, Assize, and General 
Gaol Delivery, held at Charleston, for the District of Charles- 
ton, on Tuesday, the 23d day of April, 1776, before the 
Hon. William Henry Drayton, Esq., Chief-justice, and his 
Associates, justices of the colony of South Carolina. 

Even the famous revolution in England, in the year 
1688, is much inferior. However, we need no better authority 



Revolutionary Incidents. 18^ 

than that illustrious precedent, and I will therefore com- 
pare the canses of, and the law upon the two events. 

On the 7 th of February, 1688, the Lords and Commons 
of England, in convention, completed the following resolu- 
tions : 

"Resolved, That King James IL, having endeavored to 
subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the 
original contract between king and people ; and, by the ad- 
vice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the 
fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this 
kingdom ; has abdicated the government, and that the 
throne is thereby vacant." 

That famous resolution deprived James of his crown, and 
became the foundation on which the throne of the present 
king of Great Britain is built ; it also supports the edifice 
of government which we have erected. 

In that resolve, there are but three facts stated to have 
been done by James. I will point them out, and examine 
whether those facts will apply to the present king of Great 
Britain, with regard to the operations of government, by 
him or his representative immediately, or by consequence, 
affecting this colony. 

The first fact is, the having endeavored to subvert the 
constitution of the kingdom, by weakening the original 
contract. 

The violation of the fundamental laws is the second fact ; 
and in support of these two charges, the Lords spiritual and 
temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminister, on the 
12th day of February, 1688, declared James was guilty: 

" By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with, 
and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without 
consent of Parliament; 

" By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, 
for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the 
said assumsd power ; 

"By issuing and causing to be executed a commission, 
under the great seal, for erecting a court, called the Court 
of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes ; 

" By levying money for, and to the use of the crown, by 
pretense of prerogative, for other time, and in other man- 
ner, than the same was granted by Parliament ; 



190 Historical and 

" By raising and keeping a standing army within this 
kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament ; 
and quartering soldiers contrary to law ; 

" By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to 
be disarmed, at the same time when papists were both armed 
and employed, contrary to law ; 

"By violating the freedom of election of members to 
serve in Parliament ; 

" By prosecuting in the Court of King's Bench, for mat- 
ters and causes cognizable only in Parliament ; and by divers 
other arbitraiy and illegal courses." 

Tliis declaration, thus contains two points of criminal- 
ity — breach of the original contract, and violation of funda- 
mental law. 

The catalogue of our oppressions, continental and local, is 
enormous. Of such oppressions, I will mention only some 
of the most weighty : 

Under color of law, the King and Parliament of Great 
Britain, have made the most arbitrary attempts to enslave 
America : 

By claiming a right TO bind the colonies in all cases 

WHATSOEVER ; 

By laying duties, at their mere will and pleasure, upon all 
the colonies ; 

By suspending the Legislature of New York ; 

By rendering the American charters of no validity, having 
annulled the most material parts of the charter of Massa- 
chusetts Bay ; 

By divesting multitudes of the colonists of their property 
without legal accusation or trial ; 

By depriving whole colonies of the bounty of Providence 
on their own proper coasts, in order to coerce them by 
famine ; 

By restricting the trade and commerce of America ; 

By sending to, and continuing in America, in time of 
peace, an armed force, without and against the consent of the 
people ; 

By granting impunity to a soldiery instigated to murder 
the Americans; 

By declaring, that the people of Massachusetts Bay are 
liable for offences, or pretended offences, done in that colony, 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 191 

to be sent to, and tried for the same in England; or in 
any colony where they can not have the benefit of a jury of the 
vicinage. 

By establisliing, in Quebec, the Roman Catholic religion, 
and an arbitrary government ; instead of the Protestant 
religion and a free government. 

And thus America saw it demonstrated, that no faith ought 
to be put in a royal proclamation ; for I must observe to you 
that, in the year 1763, by such a proclamation, people were 
invited to settle in Canada, and were assured of a legislative 
representation, the benefit of the common law of England, 
and a free government. It is a misfortune to the public, 
that this is not the only instance of the inefficiency of a royal 
proclamation. However, having given you one instance of a 
failure of royal faith in the northern extremity of this 
abused continent, let it suffice, that I direct your attention to 
southern extremity, respecting which, the same particulars, 
were, in the same manner promised, but the deceived inhab- 
itants of St. Augustine are left by their grand jury, in vain 
to complain and lament to the world, and yet scarcely per- 
mitted to exercise even that privilege distinguishing the 
miserable distinction that royal faith is not kept with them. 

Let us contrast the causes which led to the Eevolution 
which deposed James II, with those which led to the American 
Eevolution : 

In the first place then, it is laid down in the best law- 
authorities, that protection and subjection are reciprocal ; and 
that these reciprocal duties form the original contract between 
king and people. It therefore follows, that the original contract 
was broken by James' conduct, as above stated, which amount- 
ed to a not affording due protection to his people. And it is 
clear that he violated the fundamental laws, by the suspend- 
ing of laws, and the execution of laws ; by levying money ; 
by violating the freedom of election of members to serve in 
parliament ; by keeping a standing army in time of peace ; 
and by quartering soldiers contrary to law, and without con- 
sent of parliament — which is as much as to say, that he did 
those things without consent of the legislative Assembly chosen 
by the personal election of thai people, over whom such 
doinffs were exercised. 



192 Historical and 

These points, reasonings and conclusions, being settled in, 
deduced from, and established upon parliamentary proceedings 
and the best law authorities, must ever remain unshaken. 
I am now to undertake the disagreeable task of examining 
whether they will apply to the violences which have lighted 
up, and now feed the flames of civil war in America. 

James II. suspended the operations of laws — George III 
caused the charter of the Massachusetts-Bay to be, in efiect, 
annihilated ; he suspended the operation of the law which 
formed a legislature in New York, vesting it with adequate 
powers ; and thereby he caused the very ability of making 
laws in that colony to be suspended. 

King James levied money without the consent of the 
representatives of the people, called upon to pay it — King 
George has levied money upon America, not only without, 
but expressly against the consent of the representatives of 
the people in America. 

King James violated the freedom of election of membei'S 
to serve in parliament — King George, by his representative, 
Lord William Campbell, acting for him and on his be- 
half, broke through a fundamental law of this country, for 
the certain holding of general assemblies ; and, thereby, as 
far as in him lay, not only violated, but annihilated the very 
ability of holding a general assembly. 

King James, in time of peace, kept a standing army in 
England, without consent of the representatives of the 
people, among whom that army was kept — King George 
hath, in time of peace, invaded this continent with a large 
standing army, without the consent, and he hath kept it 
within this continent expressly against the consent of the 
representatives of the people, among whom that army is posted. 

All which doings by King George III., respecting 
America, are as much contrary to our interests and welfare, 
as much against law, and tend as much, at least, to subvert 
and extirpate the liberties of this colony, and of America, 
as the similar proceedings, by James II., operated respect- 
ing the people of England. For the same principle of 
law, touching the premises, equally applies to the people 
of England in the one case, and to the people of America 
in the other. And this is the great principle. Certain acts 



Eevolutionaky Incidents, 193 

done, over, and affecting a people, against and without their 
CONSENT, expressed by themselves, or by representatives of 
their own election. Upon this only principle was grounded 
the complaints of the people of England — upon the same ia 
grounded the complaints of the people of America. And 
hence it„clearly follows, that if James 11. violated the fundar 
mental laws of England, George III. hath also violated the 
fundamental laws of America. 

Again : — King James broke the original contract 'hy not 
affording due protection to his subjects, although he was not 
charged with having seized their towns, or with having held 
them against the people — or, with having laid them in ruins, 
by his arms — or, with having seized their vessels — or, with 
having pursued the people with fire and sword — or, with 
having declared them rebels for resisting his arms, levelled 
to destroy their lives, liberties, and properties. But George 
III. hath done all these things against America; and, it is, 
therefore, undeniable that he hath not afforded due pro- 
tection to the people. Wherefore, if James II. broke the 
original contract, it is undeniable that George III. has also 
broken the original contract between king and people ; and 
that he made use of the most violent measures by which it 
could bo done — violences of which James was guiltless — 
measures carrying conflagrations, massacre and open war 
amidst a people whose subjection to the king of Great Britain 
the law holds to be due only as a return for protection. And 
so tenacious and clear is the law upon this very principle, that 
it is laid down, subjection is not due even to a king, de jure, 
or of right, unless he be also king de facto, or in possession 
of the executive powers dispensing protection. 

Again, the third fact charged against James is, that he 
withdrew himself out of the kingdom — and we know that 
the people of this country have declared, that Lerd William 
Campbell, the king of Great Britain's representative, " hav- 
ing used his utmost efforts to destroy the lives, liberties, and 
property of the good people here, whom by the duty of 
his station he was bound to protect, withdrew himself out 
of the colony." Hence it will appear, that George III. 
hath withdrawn himself out of this colony, provided it be 
established that exactly the same natural consequence resulted 
from the withdrawal in each case respectively — Kin-g James 
17 



194 Historical and 

personally out of England, and King George out of Carolina, 
by the agency of his substitute and representative, Lord 
William Campbell. 

By King James' withdrawing, the executive magistrate 
was gone ; thereby, in the eye of the law, the executive magis- 
trate was dead, and of consequence, royal government actu- 
ally ceased in England: — so by King George's representative 
withdrawing, the executive magistrate was gone ; the death, 
in law, became apparent, and of consequence royal govern- 
ment actually ceased in this colony. Lord William withdrew 
as the king's representative, carrying off the great seal and 
royal instructions to governors ; and acting for, and on the 
part of his principal, by every construction of law, that con- 
duct became the conduct of his principal ; and thus, James 
IL withdrew out of England, and George III. withdrew 
out of South Carolina ; and by such a conduct, respectively, 
the people in each country were exactly in the same degree 
injured. 

The three facts against King James being thus stated, and 
compared with similar proceedings by King George, we are 
now to ascertain the result of the injuries done by the first, 
and the law upon that point — which being ascertained, must 
naturally constitute the judgement in law, upon the result 
of the similar injuries done by the last; and I am happy 
that I can give you the best authority upon this important 
point. 

^Treating upon this great precedent in constitutional law, 
the learned Judge Blackstone declares, that the result of the 
facts " amounted to an abdication of the government, which 
abdication did not affect only the person of the king himself, 
but also, all his heirs; and rendered the throne absolutely 
and completely vacant." Thus it clearly appears that the 
government was not abdicated, and the throne vacated by 
the resolution of the Lords and Commons, but that the resolu- 
tion was only declaratory of the law of Nature and reason, 
upon the result of the injuries proceeding from the three 
combined facts of mal-administration. And thus, as I have 
on the foot of the best authorities made it evident, that George 
IIL, king of Great Britain, has endeavored to subvert the 
constitution of this country, by Ireaking the original contract 
between king and country ; by the advice of wicked persons, 



Revolutionary Txcidents. 195 

has violated the fundamental laws, and has withdrawn him- 
self, by withdrawing the constitutional benefits of the kingly 
office, and his protection out of this country ; from such a 
result of injuries, from such a conjunction of circumstances, 
the la^v of the land authorizes me to declare, and it is my 
duty boldly to declare the law, that George III., king of 
Great Britain, has abdicated the government, and that the 
throne is thereby vacant — that is, he has no authority over %ls, 
and we qwe no obedience to him. The British ministers already 
have presented a charge of mine to the notice of the Lords 
and Commons, in Parliament ; and I am nothing loth that 
they take equal resentment against this charge. For, sup- 
ported by the fundamental laws of the constitution, and 
engaged as I am in the cause of virtue, I fear no consequences 
from their machinations. 

Thus having stated the principal causes of our last revo- 
lution, it is clear as the sun in meridian, that George III. 
injured the Americans, at least as grievously as James II. 
injured the people of England; but that James did not 
oppress these in so criminal a manner as George has oppressed 
the Americans. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Townshend's scheme of Colonial Taxation — Repeal of the new taxes, except 
that on Tea — Local Aflfairs — Trade of the Colonies — Atti mpt to collect 
the Tax on Tea — Reminiscences of the Position of the Tea Ships at 
Boston — Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor. 

In spite of the Parliamentary claim, of power o bind the 
colonies in all cases whatsoever, the repeal of the Stamp Act. 
produced throughout America a great burst of loyalty and 
gratitude. Virginia voted a statue to the king. New York 
voted statues to the king and to Pitt, both of which were 
presently erected. Maryland voted a statue to Pitt, and a 
portrait of Lord Camden. Faneuil Hall was adorned with 
full-length pictures of Barre and Conway. Pitt became more 
than ever a popular idol. Resolutions of thanks to him and 
others were agreed to by most of the colonial Assemblies. 

A resolution of the House of Commons had demanded 
indemnity from the colonies for such crown officers as had 
suffered losses in the late Stamp Act riots. New York 
promptly complied. After much urging by the governor, 
Massachusetts passed a similar act ; but a free pardon to the 
rioters, inserted in it, betrayed the state of public feeling, 
and gave great offense in England. 

As the first burst of exultation died away, new discontents- 
began to spring up. The Stamp Act was repealed, but the 
" Sugar Act" remained in force, and, though modified by a' ' 
still further reduction of the duties on molasses, to one penny 
per gallon, it continued to give great dissatisfaction, especially 
in the northern colonies. Another modification of that act 
prohibited all direct trade with France. But iron and lumber, 
lately placed in the list of " enumerated articles," were allowed 
to be exported to European ports south of Cape Finisterre- 
196 



Kevolutionary incidents. 197 

The opponents of the Stamp Act, or some of them, 
especially Pitt, had taken a distinction between a direct tax 
levied on the colonies, and commercial imposts which might 
he supposed to fall under the admitted parliamentary right 
of regulating trade. Of this distinction Townshend took 
advantage in framing his new project — hut in one respect his 
bill violated the established policy- of the mother country. 
The royal negative had been repeatedly placed on colonial 
acts levying imposts on British goods. But this bill, along 
^v'ith tea, included paints, paper, glass, and lead — articles of 
British produce — as objects of custom-house taxation in the 
e lonies. The exportation of tea to America was encouraged 
by another act, allowing for five years a drawback of the 
whole duty payable on the importation. 

The impossibility of enforcing the Stamp Act, not any 
sense of right or justice, had produced its repeal. This new 
act of Townshend's, the immediate cause of all the subse- 
quent troubles, was supposed to be of easier execution, and 
passed with very little opposition. By another act, reorgan- 
izing the colonial custom-house system, a Board of Eevenue 
Commissioners for America was established, to have its seat 
at Boston. (June, 1767.) 

The Massachusetts House of Representatives consisted at 
this time of upward of a hundred members, by far the most 
numerous Assembly in America. Its debates had begun to 
attract attention, and a gallery had lately been erected for 
the accommodation of spectators. The council, purged by 
•dropping Hutchinson and several other officials, was now 
•chiefly influenced by James Bowdoin. His grandfather, a 
French Huguenot, had migrated to New England shortly 
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His father, from 
very small beginnings, had acquired the largest fortune in 
Boston, all of which, being an only child, Bowdoin had inher- 
ited at the age of twenty-one. In the prime of life, of ele- 
vated character and a studious turn of mind, for several years 
past a member of the council, he acted in close concert with 
Adams, to whose impetuous ardor and restless activity his 
less excitable but not less firm temper served as a useful 
-counterpoise. (1768.) 

Meanwhile the merchants had been greatly irritated by 
new strictness in the collection of duties, and by suits even 
17* 



198 Historical and 

for past breaches of the revenue laws. Shortly after the 
meeting of the new General Court, the seizure of the sloop-- 
Liberty, belonging to Hancock, on the charge of having 
smuggled on shore a cargo of wine from Madeira, occasioned 
a great riot. The newly-appiointed revenue commissioners' 
fled for their lives, first on board a ship-of-war in the harbor, 
and then to the barracks on Castle Island, where a company 
of British artillery was stationed, A town meeting, held in 
Faneuil Hall, petitioned the governor to remove the ship-of- 
war from the harbor. The council passed resolutions strongly 
condemning the rioters, but would not advise that the com- 
missioners might safely return to the town, nor could the 
governor induce them to take any decided step of any sort. 
The House took no notice at all of the matter. An attempt' 
to prosecute those engaged in the riot failed for want of wit- 
nesses, and even the proceedings against the vessel had to 
be given up for the same cause. 

Before news had reached England, of the late riot in Boston, 
two regiments from Halifax had been ordered thither. When 
news of that riot arrived, two additional regiments were 
ordered from Ireland. The arrival of an officer, sent by 
Gage from New York, to provide quarters for these troops, 
occasioned a town meeting in Boston, by which the governor 
was requested to summon a new General Court, which he 
peremptorily refused to do. The meeting then recommended 
a convention of delegates from all the towns in the province, 
to assemble at Boston in ten days; "in consequence of pre- 
vailing apprehensions of a war with France " — such was the 
pretense — they advised all persons not already provided with 
fire-arms to procure them at once ; they also appointed a day 
of fasting and prayer, to be observed by all the Congrega- 
tional societies. Delegates from more than a hundred towns 
met accordingly at the day appointed, chose Cushing, speaker 
of the late House, as their chairman, and petitioned Bernard 
to summon a General Court. The governor not only refused 
to receive their petition, but denounced the meeting as trea- 
sonable. In view of this charge, the proceedings were exceed- 
ingly cautious and moderate. All pretensions to political 
authority were expressly disclaimed. In the course of a four 
days' session, a petition to the king was agreed to, and a 
letter to the a^ent, De Berdt, of which the chief burden was- 



I 



Kevolutionary Incidknts. 19y 

to defend the province against the charge of a rebellious 
spirit. Such was the first of those popular conventions, des- 
tined within a few years to assume the whole political author- 
ity of the colonies. 

The day after the adjournment, the troops from Halifax 
arrived. There was room in the barracks at the castle, but 
Gage, alarmed at the accounts from Massachusetts, had sent 
orders from New York to have the two regiments quartered 
in the town. The council were called upon to find quarters, 
but by the very terms of the Quartering Act, as they alleged, 
till the barracks were full there was no necessity to provide 
quarters elsewhere. Bernard insisted that the barracks had 
been reserved for the two regiments expected from Ireland, 
and must, therefore, be considered as already full. The 
council replied, that, even allowing that to be tlie case, by 
the terms of the act, the provision of quarters belonged not 
to them, but to the local magistrates. There was a large 
building in Boston belonging to the province, known as the 
" Manufactory House," and occupied by a number of poor 
families. Bernard pressed the council to advise that this 
building be cleared, and prepared for the reception of the 
troops ; but they utterly refused. The governor then under- 
took to do it on his own authority. The troopS had already 
landed, under cover of the ships of war, to the number of a 
thousand men. Some of them appeared, to demand an 
entrance into the Manufactory House ; but the tenants were 
encouraged to keep possession ; nor did the governor venture 
to use force. One of the regiments encamped on the Com- 
mon ; for a part of the other regiment, which had no tents, 
the temporary use of Faneuil Hall was reluctantly yielded ; 
to the rest of it, the Town House, used also as a State House, 
all except the council chamber, was thrown open by the 
governor's order. It was Sunday. The Town House was 
directly opposite the meeting-house of the First Church. Can- 
non were planted in front of it ; sentinels were stationed in 
the streets ; the inhabitants were challenged as they passed. 
The devout were greatly aggravated and annoyed by the 
beating of drums, and the marching of the troops. 

Presently Gage came to Boston to urge the provision of 
quarters. The council directed his attention to the terms 
of the act, and referred him to the selectmen. As the act 



200 HiSTOKICAL AND 

spoke only of justices of the peace, tlie selectmen declined to 
take any steps in the matter. Bernard then constituted what 
he called a Board of Justices, and required them to lind 
quarters ; but they did not choose to exercise a doubtful and 
unpopular authority. Gage was finally obliged to quarter 
the troops in houses which he hired for that purpose, and to 
procure out of his own military chest the firing, bedding, and 
other articles mentioned in the Quartering Act, the council 
having declined to order any expenditure for those purposes, 
on the ground that the appropriation of money belonged 
exclusively to the General Court. 

The seventeen mouths during which the British troops 
liad been stationed in Boston, even the agreement of the 
commanding ofiicer to use only a single drum and fife on 
Sundays, had by no means recouciled the townspeople to 
their presence, A weekly paper, the "Journal of the 
Times," was filled with all sorts of stories, some true, but 
the greater part false or exaggerated, on purpose to keep 
up prejudice against the soldiers. A mob of men and boys, 
encouraged by the sympathy of the mass of the inhabitants, 
made it a constant practice to insult and provoke them. The 
result to be expected soon followed. After numerous fights 
with straggling soldiers, a serious collision at leugth took 
place. A picket guard of eight men, provoked beyond en- 
durance by words and blows, fired into a crowd, killed three 
persons, and dangerously wounded five others. The bells 
were rung ; a cry spread through' the town — " the soldiers 
are rising." It was late at night ; but the population poured 
into the streets ; nor was it without difficulty that a general 
combat was prevented. The next morning, at an early hour, 
Faneuil Hall was filled with an excited and indignant assem- 
bly. At a town meeting, legally warned, held that afternoon 
in the old South Meeting-house, the largest building in the 
town, it was voted "that nothiug could be expected to restore 
peace, and prevent blood and carnage, but the immediate 
removal of the troops." A committee was appointed, with 
Samuel Adams as chairman, to carry this vote to the lieu- 
tenant governor and council. Adams entered the council 
chamber at the head of his committee, and delivered his 
message. Colonel Dalrymple, the commander of the troops, 
was present, as was the commander of the ships of war in 



Revolutionary Incidents. 201 

the harbor. Hutchinson disclaimed any authority over the 
soldiers. Adams answered by a reference to that 'clause in 
the charter which declared the governor, or, in his absence, 
the lieutenant governor, commander-in-chief of all the mili- 
tary and naval forces in the province. After a consultation 
with Dalrymple, Hutchinson replied that the colonel was 
willing to remove one of the regiments to the castle, if that 
would satisfy the people. "Sir," said Adams, "if the lieu- 
tenant governor, or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, 
have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority 
to remove two ; and nothing short of the departure of both 
regiments will satisfy the public mind, or preserve the peace 
of the province." The town meeting, after the return of 
their committee, voted the lieutenant governor's otter unsat- 
isfactory. Hutchinson and Dalrymple seem to have been 
mutually anxious to shift upon each other the responsibility 
of yielding to the popular demand. Finally, upon the unan- 
imous advice of the council, it was agreed that all the troops 
should be removed, the colonel pledging his honor that mean 
while not a single soldier should be seen in the streets after 
dark. The funeral of the slain, attended by a vast concourse 
of people, was celebrated with all possible pomp. The story 
of the "Boston Massacre," for so it was called, exaggerated 
into a ferocjous and unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers on 
a defenseless people, produced every where intense excite- 
ment. The officer and soldiers of the picket guard were 
indicted and tried for murder. They were defended, how- 
ever, by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, two young lawyers, 
among the most zealous of the popular leaders ; and so clear 
a case was made out in their behalf, that they were all ac- 
quitted except two, who were found guilty of manslaughter, 
and slightly punished. 

The British cabinet, after great struggles, had been quite 
sifted of its Whig members. The "king's friends" section 
of it had expelled all their opponents, and Francis North, 
eldest son of the Earl of Guilford, by courtesy Lord NoYth, 
as the leader of that section, had risen to the head of the 
ministry. As it happened, on the very day of the Boston 
massacre Lord North brought forward the promised motion 
to repeal the whole of Townsheud's act except the duty on 
tea. That act, he observed, had been the occasion of most 



202 Historical and 

dangerous, violent, and illegal combinations in America 
against the importation and use of British manufactures. 
The British merchants had petitioned against it. As to arti- 
cles of British produce, ever to have taxed them was indeed 
an absurd violation of established policy. The tax on tea 
tood on a different ground. When that tax was imposed, a 
irawback had been allowed on the exportation of tea ta 
America ; and as the colonists were thus relieved of a duty- 
amounting, on an average, to a shilling a pound, they had 
no right to complain of a tax of threepence, since they 
gained, in fact, ninepence the pound by the change. He 
could have wished to repeal the whole act, could that have 
been done without giving up the right of taxing the colo- 
nies — a right he would contend for to the last hour of his 
life. The proposed repeal, without any relaxation of author- 
ity, was intended as a persuasive to bring the colonists back 
to their duty. The existing combinations in the colonies^ 
against the use of British manufactures, he thought, would 
soon come to an end. 

Pownall moved to include tea in the repeal, supporting 
this amendment rather on grounds of expediency and com- 
mercial policy than as a matter- of colonial right. He was 
seconded by Conway and Barre. Grenville decbired that 
when he laid the stamp tax, he had the best information 
that it would be submitted to. In laying that tax he had 
acted systematically, to make every portion of the king's 
dominions bear a part of the public burdens. When that 
act raised troubles in America, the ministers who succeeded 
him acted systematically too. Theirs, perhaps, was the next 
best system to his own. They took the Americans by the 
hand, and restored things to the state they were in before 
the passing of the Stamp Act. In this statement, however, 
Grenville overlooked the Sugar Act, Avhich the Kockino-ham 
ministry had left in full force ; but that he probably regarded 
as a mere modification of the old Molasses Act, though essen- 
tially different from it in principle, involving the claim of 
parliamentary taxation hardly less than the Stamp Act itself. 
"Since that time," said Grenville, "no minister had acted 
with common sense. The next ministry laid a tax diametri- 
cally repugnant to commercial principles, bringing in no 
money, and throwing North America into ten times greater 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 203 

' fliime than before." He was in favor of easing the Ameri- 
cans ; but the ministers had no plan. The partial repeal 
whicli they proposed would do no goal; and the proposed 
amendment was so very little better, that he did not think 
it worth while to force it upon a reluctant ministry. He, 
therefore, should not vote upon the question. The amend- 
ment was defeated, two hundred and four to one hundred 
and forty-two ; and, on a subsequent day, Lord North's bill 
of repeal became law. The obnoxious Quartering Act, lim- 
ited by its terms to three years, was suffered silently to 
expire. But the Sugar Act, and especially the tax on tea, 
as they involved the Avhole principle of parliamentary taxa- 
tion, were quite sufficient to keep up the discontent of the 
colonies. 

Lord North's act, in one respect, accomplished its object, 
in furnishiug an excuse for abandoning the non-importation 
and non-consumption agreements, which soon became limited 
to the article of tea. ' Those agreements, though only par- 
tially observed, and that not without great jealousies and 
heart-burnings, were not, however, without permanent con- 
sequences. The discontinuance of that pomp of mourning 
and funeral expenses, for excess in which the colonists had 
been hitherto distinguished, takes its date from this occasion. 
The infant manufactures of America received, too, from these 
agreements, a strong impulse. Home-made became all the 
fashion. The graduating class at Cambridge took their 
degrees this year in homespun suits. 

The trade between Great Britain and the colonies is stated 
for the year 1770, as follows, and the average of the last 
ten years, allowing for a moderate increase, had not been 
materially different : 

Exports to Great Britain. 

New England £148,011 $657,168 

New York 69,882 310,276 

Pennsylvania 28,109 124,803 

Virginia and Maryland 435,094 1,931,801 

Carolinas 278,097 1,234,750 

Georgia 55,532 234,352 



£1,014,725 $4,493,150 



204 ill.STORlCAL AXD 



Imports from Great Britain. 

New England £394,451, $1,751,362 

New York 475,991 2,113,400 

Pennsylvania 134,881 699,093 

Virginia and Maryland 717,782 3,186,952 

Carolinas 146,272 649,446 

Georgia 66,193 249,496 

£1,925,570 $8,549,749 

The surplus of imports was paid for by tlie profits of the 
trade with Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. 

The taxation dispute, after a ten years' growth, was now 
fast coming to a head. The ministers saw with no little 
vexation, that the tax on tea, retained for the express pur- 
pose of vindicating the authority of Parliament, was sub- 
stantially nullified, partly by smuggling, and partly by the 
non-importation and non-consumption agreements, observed 
as yet with considerable fidelity, especially in the middle and 
southern colonies. Perhaps it would have been the more 
politic course, to have given time for these combinations to 
die away, leaving the gradual introduction of the use of 
duty-paid tea to the vigilance of the customhouse officers, to 
appetite, and commercial cupidity and rivalry. Instead of 
adopting that temporizing policy, the impatient ministers 
resolved to force at once upon the reluctant colonies a large 
quantity of the obnoxious article ; well satisfied that, if 
landed and offered for sale, it would easily find its way into 
consumption. (1773.) 

By an act of the preceding session, the allowance of draw- 
back on teas exported, had been reduced to three-fifths of 
the duty. So far as America was concerned, a drawback of 
the whole duty was now revived. The existing restraints 
upon the East India Company, to export teas on their own 
account, were also repealed, and arrangements were present- 
ly entered into with that Company, for the consignment of 
several cargoes of teas to the principal American ports. 

No sooner did this project become known in America, than 
steps were taken to counterwork it. A public meeting of 
the people of Philadelphia protested, in eight resolutions, 
against taxation by Parliament; and denounced as an 



Revolutionary Incidents. 205 

enemy to his country," " whosoever shall aid or abet m unload- 
ing, receiving, or vending the tea." In accordance with one* 
of the resolutions, a committee was appointed to wait on 
the reputed consignees in that city, " to request them, from 
a regard to their own characters, and the public peace and 
good order of the city and province, immediately to resign 
their apppointments." The Messrs. Wharton gave a satis- 
factory answer, which was received with shouts of applause. 
Groans and hisses greeted the refusal of another firm to 
commit themselves till the tea arrived. 

The names of three well-known firms in Boston, presently 
began to be noised about as the intended consignees of the 
East India Company's tea. An anonymous notice was sent 
to these reputed consignees to be present at noon on a cer- 
tain day, under Liberty Tree, to resign their appointments, 
for which day and hour an anonymous hand-bill called a pub- 
lic meeting to hear their resignations. Several hundred 
persons assembled accordingly ; the consignees not appearing, 
a committee was sent to w^it upon them; but this committee 
they treated with contempt. 

Two days after, by a call of the selectmen, a legal town 
meeting was held, at which Hancock presided. After a pre- 
amble of their own, this meeting adopted the eight Phila- 
delphia resolutions, with a supplement, acknowledging some 
remissness hitherto, in the matter of the agreement not to 
import or consume tea, but insisting for the future upon 
strict observance. A committee, appointed in the terms of 
one of the resolutions, waited upon the consignees to request 
thera to resign. After some little delay and evasion, they 
replied that, being as yet without any definite advices from 
England, they could give no decisive answer — a reply, voted 
by tlie meeting, " unsatisfactory" and "daringly affrontive." 

News presently arriving that the tea ships had sailed, 
and might be daily expected, another town meeting was 
summoned for the next day, to consult " what further appli 
cation shall be made to the consignees, or otherwise to act 
as the town shall think fit at the present dangerous crisis." 
In the evening, the house of Clarke, one of the consignees, 
was surrounded by a crowd, making many offensive noises, 
and a pistol having been fired at them, they retorted by 
smashing in the windows. 



206 HiSTOEICAL AND 

The town meeting, the next day, sent a committee to the 
the consignees, to inqnire definitely, whether or not they in- 
tended to resign. Upon receipt of an answer in the nega- 
tive, the meeting dissolved without a word. This evidence 
of a determination to act instead of resolving, struck terror 
into the consignees. They presented a petition the next day, 
to the governor and council, asking to resign themselves 
and the property committed to tlieir care, into the hands 
"of his excellency and their honors," and praying them to 
take measures for landino- and securing; the teas. The 
council, led by Bowdoin, were very little inclined to interfere. 
They deprecated the late riot at Clarke's house, at least in 
words, and advised that the rioters be prosecuted ; but they 
asked further time to consider the petition. Several adjourn- 
ments accordingly took place, and before any decision was 
reached, one of the tea ships arrived. The council having 
met next day, presented a paper to the governor, declining 
to become parties to an unconstitutional attempt to levy- 
taxes, against which the General Court had so repeatedly 
protested, or to make themselves chargeable for the tea, by 
interfering to receive it. Meetins;s in all the neiffhborino' 
towns had resolved to sustain Boston ; and while the council 
was thus declining to intermeddle with the matter, a mass 
meeting, or " body," as they called themselves, of the people 
of Boston and the neighboring towns, assembled in Faneuil 
Hall, sent for the owner of the tea ship, ordered her to be 
moored at a certain wharf, and appointed a watch of twenty- 
five volunteers to watch her. It was resolved to send her 
back with her cargo, and the master and the owner were 
charged not to attempt, at their peril, to unlade her. The 
consignees, among whom were two of the governor's sons, 
frightened at these demonstrations, took refuge at the castle, 
where was a regiment of British regulars. The "body" 
having met again the next day, the governor sent the sheriff 
of the county with a proclamation, declaring the meeting ille- 
gal, and ordering the people to disj)erse. They heard the 
message, hissed it, and voted unanimously not to regard it. 
The governor was powerless. He had ordered the Cadets, 
his guard of honor, to be in readiness ; but what could he 
expect of a company commanded by Hancock ? The troops 
at the castle, and the ships of war in the harbor, had no 



Revolutionary Incidents. 207 

warrant to interfere in a purely municipal matter ; nor was 
there any ground for the governor to call upon them, till 
something in the nature of riot, if not rebellion, had actually 
occurred. The consignees offered, if the tea might be landed, 
to keep it in store till orders came from England ; but this 
was rejected, and the master and the owner of the vessel, 
were both constrained to promise to carry it back. The 
owners of two other vessels on the way, were required to 
make a similar promise. Tea was denounced as a "perni- 
cious weed," and all persons who might henceforward be 
concerned in its importation, were declared enemies of their 
country. After a resolution to carry the matter through, at 
the risk of their lives and property, the " body " dissolved, 
leaving matters in the hands of a committee. 

The owner of the vessel was very little disposed to carry 
out the agreement extorted from him. The governor was 
resolved that no clearance should be granted till the cargo 
was landed. At the end of thirty days from her arrival, the 
vessel would be liable to seizure, for non-payment of duties. 
Two other tea ships presently arrived, and were placed in 
custody like the other. Provoked and alarmed at the non- 
departure of the first vessel, the " body " re-assembled. The 
owner was sent for, and a committee was appointed to go 
with him to demand a clearance, which the collector, after 
taking time to consider, refused to give till the cargo was 
landed. The owner was then sent anew to the governor, at 
his country-house at Milton, to request a permit, without 
which the vessel could not pass the fort and the ships-of-war 
in the harbor. He returned late in the afternoon, and an- 
nounced the governor's refusal ; he had no power, he said, 
to grant the permit till a clearance was first exhibited. 
This had been anticipated and prepared for. A band of 
some fifty men, "very dark-complexioned persons, dressed 
like Mohawks, of very grotesque appearance," so says the 
Massachusetts Gazette of that day, " approached the hall 
with an imitation of the war-whoop, and, while Josiah Quin- 
•cy harangued the people on the necessity of adhering to 
their resolutions, whatever might be the consequences, the 
pretended Mohawks proceeded to the wharf, and boarded the 
tea vessels. It was now six oclock ; the evening dusk had 
set in ; the ' body ' was dissolved, and the people, hastening 



208 Historical and 

to the wharf, looked on in silent anxiety, while in the course 
of two hours, three hundred and forty-two chests of tea 
were drawn up from the holds of the vessels and emptied 
into the water." 

There have heen some douhts concerning the destruc- 
tion of the tea, oft the 16th of Decemher, 1773. The number 
of the ships, and the place where they were situated, is not 
quite certain. One gentleman, now living, over seventy yeai's 
of age, thinks they were at Hubbard's Wharf, as it was then 
called, about Iialf way between Griffin's (now Liverpool) and 
Foster's Wharf, and that the number of ships were four or 
five. Another gentleman, who is seventy-five years of age, 
and who was one of the guard detached from the new grena- 
dier company, says t,hat he spent the night, but one, before 
the destruction of the tea, in company with General Knox, 
then a private in that company, on board one of tlie tea ships ; 
that this ship lay on the south side of Kussell's Wharf ; and 
and that there were two more on the north side of the same 
wharf, and he thinks one or two at Griffin's Wharf A gen- 
tleman now living, who came from England in one of the tea 
ships, thinks there were but two, but is uncertain where they 
lay. A song, written soon after the time, tells of " Three 
ill-fated ships at Griffin's wharf." The whole evidence seems 
to result in this : there were three ships — but whether at 
Kussell's or Griffin's wharf, or one or more at each, is not 
certain. The number of chests destroyed was, according to the 
newspapers of the times, 342. There was a "body-meeting" 
on the 16th of December, 1773. This matter of the tea was 
the occasion of the meetino-. The meetino- beo-an at Fanueil 
Hall, but that place not being large enough, it was adjourned 
to the Old South, and even that place could not contain all 
who came. 

Jonathan Williams was moderator. Among the spectators 
was John Kowe, who lived in Pond street, where Mr. Pres- 
cott now lives ; among other things, he said : " Who knows 
how tea will mingle witli salt water?" and this suggestion 
was received with great applause. Governor Hutchinson was 
at this time at the house on Milton Hill, where Barney Smith, 
Esq., lives. A committee was sent from the meeting to 
request him to order the ships to depart. While they were 
gone, speeches were made, for the purpose of keeping the 



Revolutionary Incidents. 209 

people together. The committee returned ahout sunset, with 
his answer, that he could not interfere. At this moment the 
Indian yell was lieard from the street. * Mr. Samuel Adams 
cried out that it was a trick of their enemies to disturb the 
meeting, and requested the people to keep their places — but 
the people rushed out, and accompanied the Indians to the 
ships. The number of persons disguised as Indians is va- 
riously stated — none put it lower than sixty, none higher 
than eighty. It is said by persons who were present, that 
nothing was destroyed but the tea — and this was not done 
with noise and tumult, little or nothing being said either by 
the agents or the multitude who looked on. The impression 
was that of solemnity rather than that of riot and confusion. 
The destruction was effected by the disguised persons, and 
some young men who volunteered ; one of the latter collected 
the tea which fell into the shoes of himself and companions, 
and put it into a vial and sealed it up — which vial is now in 
his possession, containing the same tea. 

The contrivers of this measure, and those who carried it 
into effect, will never be known ; some few persons have been 
mentioned as being among the disguised, but there are many 
and obvious reasons wh}"^ secresy then, and concealment since, 
were necessary. None of the persons who were confidently 
said to have been of the party (except some who were then mi- 
nors or very young men) have ever admitted that they were so. 
The person who appeared to know more than any one I ever 
spoke with, refused to mention names. Mr. Samuel Adams 
is thought to have been in the counseling of this exploit, and 
many other men, who were leaders in the political affairs of 
the times ; and the hall of council is said to have been in the 
back-room of Edes & Gill's printing-office, at the corner of 
the alloy leading to Battle street church, from Court street. 
There are very few alive now who helped to empty the 
chests of tea, and these few will probably be as prudent as 
those who have gone before them. 

At length, after great delays, the New York tea ship 
arrived at Sandy Hook. The pilots, under instructions from 
the city committee, refused to bring her up, and a " Com- 
mittee of Vigilance" soon took possession of her. Brought 
to town, the captain was informed by a deputation from the 
city committee that he must take back ship and cargo. He 
18* 



210 Historical and 

desired to see the consignee, and was escorted to him ; but 
the consignee declined to give any orders. Meanwhile, 
another ship, commanded by a New York Captain, arrived at 
tRe Hook, and, on assurance that she had no tea on board, 
was allowed to come to town. But a report to the contrary 
soon spread, and the captain was obliged to acknowledge that 
he had eighteen chests, not belonging to the East Tndia Com- 
pany, but a private adventure. The indignant populace 
seized the tea and emptied it into the river, A day or two 
after, with great parade, headed by a band playing, " God 
save the King," the bells ringing, and colors flying from the 
liberty pole and the shipping, the captain of the East India 
tea ship was escorted from the custom-house to a pilot boat, 
which took him to the Hook, where, under directions of the 
Committee of Vigilance, the anchors were weighed, and the 
vessel started on her homeward voyage. 

The Charleston tea ship reached that city the same day 
that the New York tea ship reached the Hook. The teas 
were landed, but were stored in damp cellars, where they 
soon became worthless. We give here a very rare copy of 
the resolutions entered upon, at a great meeting of the citi- 
zens of Philadelphia, commending the course of the Boston 
tea rioters. 

A. public meeting of the inhabitants was held at the State 
House, on the 18th of October, at which great numbers 
attended, and the sense of the city was expressed in the fol- 
lowing resolutions : — 

1. Tnat the disposal of their own property is the inherent 
right of freemen ; that there can be no property in that 
which another can, of right, take from us without our con- 
sent ; that the claim of Parliament to tax America, is, in 
other words, a claim of right to levy contributions on us at 
pleasure. 

2. That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed 
in America, is a tax on the Americans, or levying contribu- 
tions on them without their consent. 

3. That the express purpose for which the tax is levied on 
the Americans, namely, for the support of government, admin- 
istration of justice, and defense of his Majesty's dominions in 
America, ] as a direct tendency to render Assemblies useless, 
iwvi to introduce arbitrary government and slavery. 



\ 



Eevolutiokakt Incidents. 211 

4. That a virtuous and steady opposition to this ministe- 
rial plan of governing America, is absolutely necessary to 
preserve even the shadow of liberty, and it is a duty which 
every freeman in America owes to his country, to himself, 
and posterity. 

5. That the resolution lately entered into by the East 
India Company, to send out their tea to America, subject to 
the payment of duties on its being landed Jiere, is an open 
attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack 
upon the liberties of America. 

6. That it is the duty of every American to oppose this 
attempt. 

7. That whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance 
this attempt, or in anywise aid or abet in unloading, receiv- 
ing, or vending the tea sent, or to be sent out by the East 
India Company, while it remains subject to the payment of a 
duty here, is an enemy to his country. 

8. That a committee be immediately chosen to wait on 
those gentlemen who, it is reported, are appointed by the 
East India Company, to receive and sell the said tea, and 
request them, from a regard to their own character, and the 
peace and good order of the city and province, immediately 
to resign their appointment. 

Upon an hour's notice, on Monday morning, a public meet- 
ing was called, and the State House not being sufficient to 
hold the numbers assembled, they adjourned into the Square. 
This meeting is allowed by all to be the most respectable, 
both in the numbers and rank of those who attended it, that 
has been known in this city. After a short introduction, the 
following resolutions were not only agreed to, but the public 
approbation testified in the warmest manner. 

1. That the tea, on board the ship Polly, Captain Ayres, 
shall not be landed. 

2. That Captain Ayres shall neither enter nor report his 
vessel at the custom-house. 

3. That Captain Ayres shall carry back the tea immediately. 

4. That Captain Ayres shall immediately send a pilot on 
board his vessel, to take charge of her, and proceed to Eeedy 
Island, next high water. 

5. That the captain shall be allowed to stay in town till 
to-morrow, to provide necessaries for his voyage. 



212 



Historical and 



6. That lie shall then be obliged to leave the town ancf. 
proceed to his vessel, and make the best of his way out of 
our river and bay. 

7. That a committee of four gentlemen be appointed tO' 
see these resolves carried into execution. 

The Assembly was then informed of the spirit and resolu- 
tion of New York, and Charleston, S. C, and the conduct 
of the people of Boston, whereupon it was unanimously 
resolved — 

That this assembly highly approve the conduct and spirit 
of the people of New York, Charleston, and Boston, and 
return thfeir hearty thanks to the people of Boston for their 
resolution in destroying the tea, rather than suffering it to* 
Ije landed. 






CHAPTER XVII. 

The troubles thicken — Gage re-inforced — Assembly of the first Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia. 

The unscrupulous and brutal Gage liacl now resumed com- 
mand of the British forces, as well as entered upon his ap- 
pointment as governor of Massachusetts. Boston Neck had 
been fortified by him, and seven regiments been added to his 
command. The " non-importation and consumption bill," re- 
commended by the General Court, had been agreed to by 
many of the colonies, and the general aspect of affairs be- 
came threatening for the young Sam. 

The Congress, which had now assembled, by agreement, to 
consider the affairs of the country, commenced their session 
at Philadelphia, in defiance of the strenuous opposition of 
Gage. This Congress consisted of fifty-three delegates, the 
leading men of twelve provinces, Georgia, alone, of the 
originally British colonies, being unrepresented. Beside 
others of less note, there were present in this assembly the 
two Adamses, of Massachusetts ; Sherman and Deaue, of 
Connecticut ; Philip Livingston, Jay, and Duane, of New 
York ; William Livingston, of New Jersey ; Galloway, of 
Pennsylvania; Eodney, Road, and M'Kean, of Delaware; 
Chase, of Maryland; Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Wash- 
ington, and Henry, of Virginia ; the two Riitledges, and 
'Gadsden, of South Carolina. The post of honor was freely 
conceded to Virginia, by the choice of the now aged Peyton 
Randolph as president. Charles Thompson, late master of 
the Quaker academy at Philadelphia, was chosen secretary. 
Samuel Adams, himself a stiff Congregationalist, moved the 
appointment of an Episcopal chaplain, and Jacob Duche, a 

213 



214 Historical and 

popular preacher of Philadelphia, was accordingly appointed. 
As no means were at hand to estimate the relative import- 
ance of the colonies, it was agreed that each province should 
have a single vote. All proceedings were to be with closed 
doors, and nothing was to be published except by order. 

A committee of two from each province reported, in the 
form of a series of resolves, accepted and adopted by the 
Congress, a " Declaration of Colonial Eights." The enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and property were claimed in this 
Declaration as natural rights. The privilege of being bound 
by no law, to which they had not consented by their repres- 
entatives, was claimed for the colonists in their character of 
British subjects. The sole and exclusive power of legislation 
for the colonies was declared to reside in their respective 
Assemblies, reserving to Parliament the enactment of such 
laws only as might be essential to the bona fide regulation 
of trade, but excluding all taxatio'n, internal or external. 
The common law of England was claimed as the birthright 
of the colonists, including the right of trial by a jury of the 
vicinage, the right of public meetings, and of petition. A 
protest was made against standing armies maintained in the 
colonies without their consent ; and a similar protest against 
legislation by councils dependent on the crown — this last in 
allusion to tlie Quebec Act. All immunities hitherto enjoyed 
in the colonics, whether by charter or custom, were claimed 
as established rights, beyond the power of the mother country 
to abrogate. Eleven acts of Parliament, passed since the 
accession of George III. — the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the 
two Quartering Acts, the Tea Act, the Act Suspending the 
New York Legislature, the two Acts for the Trial in Great 
Britain for otfenses committed in America, the Boston Port 
Bill, the Act for Pieo'ulating the Government of Massachu 
setts, and the Quebec Act — were enumerated, m conclusion, 
as having been passed in derogation of the I'ights of the 
colonies. ' (1774.) 

As means for enforcing this claim of rights, fourteen 
articles were agreed to, as the basis of an " American Asso-^ 
elation," pledging the associators to an entire commercial 
non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West 
Indies, and the non-consumption of tea and British goods : 
this non-intercourse to be extended to such provinces of North 



EEVOLUTIOXAnY INCIDENTS. 215 

America as should decline to come into the Association, and 
to last till the obnoxious acts of Parliament were repealed. 
The non-importation clauses were to commence in DecemBer, 
but the non-exportation clauses were postponed for nine months 
longer. The slave trade was specially denounced, and en- 
tire abstinence from it, and from any trade with those con- 
cerned with it, formed a part of the Association. The 
associators were also pledged to encourage tlie breeding of 
sheep, and the disuse of mourning. Traders were not to be 
allowed to enhance the price of goods in consequence of this 
agreement. Committees were to be appointed in every 
county, city, and town, to detect and to publish the names 
of all violators of it ; and all dealings with such " enemies 
of American liberty " were to be immediately broken off. 

Patrick Henry, who liad electrified the Congress by his 
eloquence, was selected by the committee, to which that 
business was intrusted, to draft the petition to the king. 
But this draft, when received, did not give satisfaction. 
Dickinson, lately added to the Pennsylvania delegation, was 
added also to the committee, and a new draft was prepared 
by him, which the Congress approved. 

While the Continental Congress was still in session, mat- 
ters in Massachusetts were fast verging to a crisis. Gage 
had summoned a House of Representatives to meet him at 
Salem, to proceed to business under the late act of Parlia- 
ment ; but the spirit evinced in the resolutions of the town 
meetings and county conventions induced him to issue a 
proclamation countermanding the Assembly. It was denied, 
however, that the Governor could prorogue the Court till it 
had first met ; and, notwithstanding the countermand, most 
of the members elect assembled at Salem on the day appoint- 
ed. As nobody appeared to open the session and administer 
the oaths, they adopted the advice already given by the Essex 
county Convention, resolved themselves into a Provincial Con- 
gress, adjourned to Concord, and there organized by choosing 
John Hancock as president, and for secretary Benjamin Lin- 
coln, a farmer of Hingham, afterward a major-general in the 
revolutionary army. A large committee, appointed to consider 
the state of the province, reported an address to Gage, which 
the Congress adopted; after which they adjourned to Cam- 
bridge, whence a committee was sent to present the address 



216 lIlSTOKICAL AND 

to tlie governor. The Congress, in this address, protested 
their attachment to Great Britain, their loyalty to the king, 
and their love of peace and order, but complained of the recent 
acts of Paliament, the eniployment of the powers of govern- 
ment to harass and enslave them, the military force concen- 
trated in Boston, and the fortifications erecting there. The 
people, they declared, would never he satisfied till these mili- 
tary preparations were discontinued and those fortifications 
demolished. 

Gage replied that his military preparations were only in 
self-defense, and justified by threats everywhere uttered. 
He disavowed, on behalf of Great Britain, any design to 
harass or enslave ; expressed a wish for harmony ; begged 
them to consider, while complaining of violations of their 
charter, whether their present assembly was not a violation 
of it; and required them, in conclusion, to desist from their 
illegal proceedings. 

So far from desisting, the Congress appointed a Committee 
of Safety, at the head of which was John Hancock, with pow- 
er to call out the militia. A committee was also raised to 
take measures for the defense of the province, and another 
to procure military stores and provisions, towards which the 
sum of .£20,000, $66,QQ6, was appropriated. Constables and 
other collectors of taxes were ordered to pay no more money 
to the late Treasurer of the province, but to hand over all 
future collections to a new Treasurer appointed by the Con- 
gress. Preble, of Falmouth, an old militia officer, Artemus 
Ward, a colleague of Buggies on the bench of the Worcester 
Common Pleas, and Pomeroy, who led a regiment at the 
battle of Lake George, were commissioned as generals. The 
militia were called upon to choose company and regimental 
officers of their own, and to perfect themselves in military 
discipline. The Congress disavowed any intention to attack 
the British troops ; but, as their Capital was occupied by a 
large force, as the military stores of the province had been 
seized, and as there was too much reason to apprehend a still 
more direct invasion of their rights, they declared these 
measures necessary for defense. Gage issued a proclamation 
denouncing their proceedings, to which no attention was paid, 
while the recommendations of the Provincial Congress had 
all the force of law. Gage had no support except in hia 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 217 

troops and a few trembling officials, while the -zealous co- 
operation of an intelligent, firm, energetic, and overwhelm- 
ing majority of the people gave to the Congress all the 
strength of an established government. 

While the colonics were thus busy in defense of their rights, 
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia had been again 
visited by Indian war. Surveyors, sent under the royal 
authority, at the request of the Assembly of Virginia, to ex- 
tend the western limits of that province, had pushed their 
explorations to a great distance westward. Some of these 
surveyors had descended the Ohio as far as the Falls, and had 
traced up the Kentucky a considerable distance from its 
mouth. Collisions took place between these explorers and 
the Indians on the Ohio. Under the impulse of a false rumor 
of previous hostilities on the part of the Indians, nine per- 
sons, the family of Logan, a chief distinguished for friendship 
to the whites, were murdered in cold blood. This and other 
similar attrocities excited the Indians to revenge. The juris- 
diction of the region about Pittsburgh was still disputed 
between Virginia and Pennsylvania. St. Clair and others, 
who recognized the authority of Pennsylvania, endeavored 
to conciliate matters, and an appeal was made to Sir William 
Johnson, by the Pennsylvania authorities, to induce the Six 
Nations to act as mediators. Just at this time Sir William 
died, but the business was undertaken by his son-in-law, Guy 
Johnson, soon appointed his successor as superintendent of the 
Northern Indians. While these efforts for peace were made 
by Pennsylvania, Conolly and others in the Virginia interest 
were bent on war, in which they were fully supported by 
Governor Dunmore. Daniel Boone was sent to guide back 
by land the surveyors employed on the Lower Ohio ; after 
which he was placed in command of a frontier fort. Volun- 
teers to march against the Indians were easily obtained. 
Major M'Donald, with four hundred men, having assembled 
at Pish Creek, on the Ohio, just below Wheeling, marched 
against and destroyed the Shawanese village on the Mus- 
kingum, some fifteen miles below the present Coshocton ; but 
the Indians made their escape. Dunmore himself, with 
fifteen hundred men, presently moved against the Indian 
villages on the Scioto, while Colonel Lewis, with another divi- 
sion of twelve hundred men, descended the Kanawha. Near 
19 



218 Historical and 

the mouth of that river, Lewis found the Indians in force^ 
under Logan, Cornstalk, and other chiefs. A very hard- 
foug-ht battle ensued ; the Virginians finally carried the day, 
hut not without the loss of sixty or seventy killed, and a large 
number wounded. Shelby, afterwards first governor of Ken- 
tucky, led a company in this battle. 

Alarmed at Dunmore's approach toward their villages, the 
Lidians had already entered into negotiations, and Dunmore 
sent word to Lewis to put a stop to hostilities — orders which 
the backwoodsmen were somewhat reluctant to obey. Logan 
was not present at the treaty, hut he sent the following 
speech : "I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entei-- 
ed Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever 
he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During 
the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his 
cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the 
whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 
' Loffan is the friend of white men !' I had even thouo-ht ta 
have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colo- 
nel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, 
murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing women 
and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins 
of any living creature. This called on me for revenge ! I 
have sought it ; I have killed many ; I have fully glutted 
my vengeance ! For my people, I rejoice at the beams of 
peace ; but do not harbor a thought that mine is tlie joy of 
fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel 
to save his life ! Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not 
one !" 

At Fort Gower, at the junction of the Hocking with the 
Ohio, the officers of Dunmore's army, on their homeward 
march, held a meeting, at which they complimented the 
governor, and resolved to bear faithful allegiance to the 
king, but also to maintain the just rights of America, by 
every means in their power. 

At the same time with these difficulties on the Virginia 
frontier, some collisions took place in Georgia, between the 
settlers on the recently ceded lands, and the Creeks and 
Cherokees, who seemed disposed to support each other in 
case of hostilities. But, instead of having recourse to arms, 
Governor Wright proclaimed a suspension of trade. The-' 



Revolutio.vary Incidents. 21^ 

Indians, by this means, were soon brougnt to terms, and a 
new treaty of peace was arranged. 

Two successive cargoes of tea which arrived at Portsmouth, 
had been reshipped. A quantity brought to Annapolis was 
burned, and the ship with it ; the owner himself, to soothe 
the excitement, sotting fire to it with his own hand. The 
Assembly of Connecticut gave orders to the towns to lay in 
a double supply of ammunition. Tiiey directed the cannon 
at New London to be mounted, and the militia to be fre- 
quently trained. The proceedings of the Continental Con- 
gress were approved, and the same delegates were re-appointed. 

Measures, meanwhile, were everywhere on foot, by the 
appointment of committees of inspection, to enforce the 
American Association. Philadelphia set the example. New 
York followed, by appointing a city committee of sixty, with 
full powers for that purpose. At a third session of the 
Massachusetts Congress, held after a short adjournment, the 
delegates to the late Continental Congress made a report of 
the doings of that body, all of which were fully approved. 
It was voted to enroll twelve thousand " minute men " — vol- 
unteers, that is, from among the militia, pledged to be ready 
for service at a minute's notice ; and negotiations were 
ordered with the other New England colonies, to make up 
this force to twenty thousand. John Thomas, of Plymouth 
county, who had led a regiment in the late war, and William 
Heath, a Roxbury farmer, were commissioned as generals. 
Domestic manufactures were strongly urged upon the atten- 
tion of the people. Tlie same delegates as before were 
appointed to the Continental Congress, to be held in the 
Spring. Directions were also issued for the election of a 
new Provincial Congress, to meet early in the year, at which, 
time, the members of the last elected Council were requested 
to be present. The Congress then adjourned, to attend the 
annual thanksgiving, of which they had assumed the appoint- 
ment. Their authority was zealously seconded in every town, 
by a Committee of Safety, vested with general executive 
powers, a Committee of Correspondence, and a Committee 
of Inspection, appointed to look after the observance of the 
American Association. 

In the absence of the ships-of-war, usually stationed 
in Narraganset Bay, forty-four pieces of cannon were 



■220 Historical and 

taken from the batteries at Newport, and conveyed to Provi 
dence. When called upon by the British naval commander 
for an explanation, Governor Wanton bluntly avowed that 
these cannon had been taken away to prevent their falling 
into his hands, and were intended for use against any power 
that might offer to molest the colony. This movement in 
Ehode Island, was induced by a royal proclamation prohibit- 
ing the export of military stores to America. It was soon 
followed up in New Hampshire. Instigated by Paul Eevere, 
from Boston, and led by John Sullivan, a leading lawyer, 
late a delegate to the Continental Congress, and by John 
Langdon, a principal merchant of Portsmouth, a large party 
entered the fort at that place, which was only guarded by 
four or five men, and carried off a hundred barrels of pow- 
der, some cannon and small arms. 

The doings of the Continental Congress were approved by 
a Convention in Maryland, and the several counties took 
measures for enforcing the Association. The Convention of 
Maryland assumed, in fact, the powers of government ; they 
ordered the militia to be enrolled, and voted X10,000 to pur- 
chase arms. The Assembly of Pennsylvania also approved 
the doings of Congress, and appointed delegates to the new 
one. In South Carolina, delegates to the new Congress, and 
•Committees of Inspection to enforce the Association, were 
appointed by a Provincial Convention, of which Charles 
Pinckney was president, called together by the committee of 
ninety-nine. (1775.) 

A general election had recently taken place in Great 
Britain, but the result boded no good to the colonies. Par- 
ties in the new House of Commons stood very much as before. 
Lord North, and his colleagues in the ministry, had an over- 
whelming majority. Ministers not only were sure of sup- 
port from Parliament, and from the personal feelings of the 
king, strongly bent upon bringing the colonies to uncondi- 
tional submission : they were also sustained by the general 
sentiment of the British people, by whom the stigma of 
rebellion was already affixed to the conduct of the colonists. 

Yet there was not wanting, both in and out of Parliament, 
a very respectable minority, opposed to subduing the colonists 
by force, and anxious to promote an amicable adjustment. 
The merchants trading to America, were very averse 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 221 

that any occasion should be given to their debtors for post- 
poning or r;'fusing the payment of their debts, or that actual 
war should put a final stop to a profitable trade, already so 
seriously threatened by the American Association, compared 
with which, all former non -importation agreements had been 
limited and ineflScient. The English Dissenters were inclined 
by religious sympathies to favor the colonists. Such frag- 
ments of the old Whig party as had not coalesced with 
the "king's friends," headed by the Marquis of Rockingham 
and the Earl of Chatham, supported by the colonial experi- 
ence of Pownall and Johnstone, and sustained by the elo- 
quence of Burke, Barre, Dunning, and the youthful Fox^ 
few, but able, maintained with zeal those principles of lib- 
erty, which had descended to them from the times of the 
English civil wars, and which the threatened civil war in 
America seemed now again to arouse to new life. 

After a long absence, Chatham re-appeared in the House 
of Lords, and proposed an address to the king, advising the 
recall of the troops from Boston; but this motion, though 
supported by Lord Camden, after a warm debate, was rejected 
by a very decisive majority. In the Commons, the papers 
relating to America were referred to a committee of the 
whole. The petitions for conciliation, which flowed in from 
all the great trading and manufacturing towns of the king- 
dom, ought properly to have gone to the same committee ; 
but the ministers procured their reference to another com- 
mittee for a subsequent day, which the opposition derided as 
a "committee of oblivion." Among the papers laid before 
Parliament, was the petition from the Continental Congress 
to the king. Three of the colonial agents, Franklin, Bol- 
lan, and Arthur Lee, to whose care this petition had been 
intrusted, asked to be heard upon it by counsel, at the bar of 
the House. But their request was refused, on the ground 
that the Congress was an illegal assembly, and the alleged 
grievances only pretended. 

Still persevering in his schemes for conciliation, Chatham 
brought forward, in the Lords, a bill for settling the troubles 
in America. It required a full acknowledgement on the 
part of the colonists, of the supremacy and superintending 
power of Parliament, but provided that no tax should ever 
be levied, except by colonial Assemblies. It contained, also, 
19^ 



222 Historical an"d 

a provision for a Congress of the colonies to make the re- 
quired acknowledgement, and to vote, at the same time, a 
free grant to the king of a certain perpetual revenue, to be 
placed at the disposal of Parliament. Chatham exerted him- 
self, on this occasion, with renewed and remarkable vigor; 
but, in spite of all his efforts, after a warm and very pointed 
debate, his bill was refused the courtesy of lying on the 
table, and, contrary to the usual course, was rejected by a 
vote of two to one, at the first reading. 

Agreeably to the scheme foreshadowed in his speech on the 
address, Lord North, in the House of Commons, brought in 
a bill for cutting off the trade of New England elsewhere 
than to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies — 
intended as an offset to the American Association — and 
suspending the prosecution from those colonies of the New- 
foundland fishery, a principal branch at that time of their 
trade and industry. An address to the throne, proposed by 
the ministers, and carried after great debates, declared that 
a rebellion already existed in Massachusetts, countenanced 
and fomented by unlawful combinations in other colonies. 
Effectual measures were recommended for suppressing this 
rebellion ; and the support of Parliament was pledged to the 
king, in the maintenance of the just authority of the crown 
and the nation. 

Burke, as representative of the Eockingham section of the 
opposition, brought forward a series of resolutions proposing 
the abandonment of all attempts at parliamentary taxation, 
and a return to the old method of raising American supplies 
by the free grant of the colonial Assemblies. He supported 
these resolutions in an elaborate speech ; but his motion was 
voted down, as was a similar one, introduced a few days after, 
by David Hartley, on behalf of the Chatham section of the 
opposition. 

We give here the most important portions of this famous 
speech of Burke, which, from the direct light it sheds upon 
questions at issue, between Sam and the old country, is of 
great importance. 

The Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., on moving his resolur 
tions for conciliation with the colonies, 3farch 22, 1775. 

" I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative state- 
ment of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood 



Kevolutioxaky Ixcidexts. 223 

in the year 1704, and as it stood in tlie year 1772. The other, 
a statement of the export trade of this country to its colonies 
alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade 
of Enghmd to all parts of the world (the colonies included,) 
in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers: the latter 
period, from the accounts on your tahle ; the earlier, from an 
original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the 
inspector general's office, which has been, ever since his time, 
so abundant a source of Parliamentary information. 

The export trade to the colonies consists of three great 
branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly in 
the colonies, must be put to the account of their commerce, 
the "VVost Indies and the North American. All these are so . 
interwoven, that the attempt to separate them wouhl tear to 
pieces the contexture of the Avhole ; and, if not entirely des- 
troy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. 
I therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in 
effect they are, one trade. 

The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the 
beginning of this century, that is, in the year 17<)4, stood 

thus : 

Exports to North America and the West Indies, £481,265 
To Africa , 86.065 

£569,930 
In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between 
the highest and and the lowest of those lately laid on your 
table, the accounts were as follows : 

To North America and the West Indies £1,791,734 

To Africa 866.398 ' 

To which, if you add the export trade to and 
from Scotland, which had, in 1704, no 
existence 364,000 

£6,022,132 
From five hundred and odd thousands, it has grown to six 
million ; it has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is 
the state of the colony trade as compared with itself at these 
two periods, within this century ; and this is matter for medi- 
tation. But this is not all. Examine my second account. 
See how the export trade to the colonies alone, in 1772, 
stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared with 
the whole trade of England, in 1704: — The whole export 



224 HiSTOEICAL AND 

trade of England, including that to the colonies, in 1704, 
was X6,509,000; the exports to the colonies alone, in 1772, 
amounted to £6,024,000. 

Thus the trade with America alone is now within less than 
i£500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial 
nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century 
with the whole world ! If I had taken the largest year of 
those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But it 
will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protu- 
berance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? 
The reverse ; it is the very food that has nourished every 
other part into its present magnitude. Our general trade 
has been greatly augmented ; and augmented more or less 
in almost every part to which it ever extended; but with 
this material difference, that of the six millions, which, in the 
beginning of the century, constituted the whole mass of our 
export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth part ; 
it is now (as a part of seventeen million) considerably more 
than a third of the whole. 

This is the relative proportion of the importance of the 
colonies at these two periods ; and all reason concerning our 
mode of treating them, must have this proportion as its basis, 
or it is a reasoning, weak, rotten, and sophistical. 

Mr. Speaker, I can not prevail upon myself to hurry over 
this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We 
stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what 
is past. Clouds indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. 
Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, 
reflect that this growth of our national prosperity, has hap- 
pened within the short period of the life of man — it has 
happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive, 
whose memory might touch the two extremities ! For instance, 
my Lord Bathurst, might remember all the stages of the pro- 
gress. He was, in 1704, of age at least be made to compre- 
hend such things ; he was then old enough, acta parentum 
jam legere, et quce sit proterit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, sir, 
that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many 
virtues, which made him one of the most amiable, as he is 
one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him 
in vision that when, in the fourth generation, the third prince 
of the house of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne 



Revolutionary Incidents. 225 

of that nation which (hy the happy issue of moderate and 
healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see 
his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current 
of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a 
higher rank of peerage, while we enriched the family with a 
new one ; if, amid these bright and happy scenes of domestic 
honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the 
curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and 
while he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial 
grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a 
little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, 
a small seminal principle, rather than a formed body, and 
should tell him — " Young man, there is America, which at 
this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories 
of savage men, and uncouth manners ; yet shall, before you 
taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that qpmmerce 
which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England 
has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvements, 
brought in by variety of people, by successsion of civilizing 
I conquests and civilizing settlements, in a series of seventeen 
hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America, 
in the course of a single life." If this state of his country had 
been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine cre- 
dulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make 
him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it ! For- 
tunate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the 
prospect, and cloud the setting of his day ! 

This noble effort at conciliation, seems, however, to have 
fallen upon deaf ears. 

The new provincial Congress of Massachusetts, consisting 
of upward of three hundred members, having met at Cam- 
bridge, Elb ridge Gerry, a merchant of Marblehead, for two 
or three years past prominent in the General Court, was 
placed at the head of the Committee of Supplies. Active 
measures were taken for arming and drilling the militia, and 
especially for procuring powder ; and magazines of provisions 
and military stores began to be laid up at Concord, Worces- 
ter, and other places. An appeal to the people was put forth, 
and a day of fasting and prayer appointed ; after which the 
Congress took a short adjournment. 



226 Historical and 

Aware of what was going on, Gage sent a detacliment to 
Salem, whence the British troops had been withdrawn for 
concentration at Boston, to seize some cannon said to he 
deposited there. A hundred and fifty regulars, sent from 
Boston by water, landed at Salem on this business. Not 
finding the cannon there, they marched in search of them 
toward the adjoining town of Danvers. At a bridge between 
the towns they encountered a party of militia, under Colonel 
Pickering, who claimed the bridge as private property, and 
proposed to dispute the passage. It was Sunday ; one of the 
Salem ministers interfered, and, taking advantage of rever- 
ence for the day, with much difiiculty prevented a collision. 
The soldiers were allowed to pass the bridge, but soon- 
returned without finding the cannon. About the same time, 
two officers were sent in disguise to examine the country and 
the roads towards Worcester. 

The Connecticut Assembly, in a special session, though 
they declined to take immediate steps for enlisting troops, 
yet commissioned David Wooster as major-general, and 
Joseph Spencer and Israel Putnam as brigadiers. The 
Massachusetts Congress shortly after voted to raise an army 
for the defense of the province. They sent committees to 
the other New England colonies to solicit their aid and con- 
currence, and meanwhile took another recess. 

Gage's force at this time amounted to twenty-eight hundred 
and fifty men. As the spring opened, he determined by active 
movements to nip these rebellious preparations in the bud. 
Two officers, sent from Boston to make a reconnoissance, 
reported that some cannon and a quantity of provisions and 
military stores had been collected at Concord, an interior 
town, about twenty miles from Boston. To destroy these 
stores, eight hundred British troops, light infantry and gren- 
adiers, left Boston, under Colonel Smitli, with great secresy, 
shortly after midnight, and reached Lexington, within six 
miles of Concord, before sunrise. But the alarm had been 
given — it was supposed their object might be to arrest Han- 
cock and Samuel Adams, who were lodging at Lexington — 
and the minute men of the neighborhood, about a hundred in 
number, had assembled on the green in front of the meet- 
ing-house. The head of the British column came suddenly 



Revolutionary Incidents. 227 

•upon them, led by two or tliret; otiicors, who called upon 
the minute men to throw down their arms and disperse. 
When these orders were not instantly obeyed, a volley was 
fired, by which eight of the minute men were killed, and 
several wounded. The British alleged, however, that the 
minute men fired first. The survivors scattered at once, and 
the regulars marched on to Concord. As they approached 
that village, another body of minute men was seen assembled 
on a hill in front of the meeting-house ; but, as the regulars 
advanced, they retired across a bridge to another hill back of 
the town. The bridge was taken possession of by the regu- 
lars, a guard of three companies was stationed at it, and 
three other companies were sent across to destroy some stores 
at a distance. The main body halted near the meeting- 
house, and commenced destroying the stores found there. 
The minute men on the hill, increased by constant accessions, 
presently advanced toward the bridge. The guard of regu- 
lars having retired across it, began to take up the planks, 
and, as the minute men continued to approach, they fired. 
The fire was returned, and several regulars were killed ; yet 
such was the hesitation at this first shedding of blood, that 
the three British companies beyond the bridge were suffered 
to re-cross without molestation. They fell back to the village, 
and the whole detachment commenced a speedy retreat. It 
was time. The alarm had spread ; the country was up. The 
minute men, hurrying in from every side, threatened the 
rear, the flanks, the front of the retreating column, and from 
behind trees, fences and stone walls, poured in an irregular 
but galling and fatal fire. The British suffered very severely ; 
the commanding officer was wounded ; the retreat was fast 
turning into a rout ; the whole party would have fallen into 
the hands of the provincials but for seasonable aid found at 
Lexington, whither Gage, with wise caution, had dispatched 
Lord Percy, with a supporting column of nine hundred men 
and two pieces of cannon. The artillery kept the minute 
men at bay ; Percy's men received their exhausted compan- 
ions within a hollow square, and the retreat, after a short 
halt, was again re-commenced. By throwing out strong 
flanking parties, Percy covered his main body, and by sun- 
set the regulars reached Charlestown, worn out with fatigue, 
and with a loss in killed and wounded of near three hundred 



228 Historical and 

men. The provincial loss was about eighty-five. The ex- 
hausted regulars encamped on Bunker Hill, under cover of" 
the ships of war in the river. The next day they crossed 
the ferry to Boston. 

From all parts of New England volunteers marched at 
once, and within a day or two after the fight, Boston was 
beleaguered by a considerable but irregular army. The 
news, forwarded by express, spread fast through the colonies. 
Yet, with the hottest haste which could then bo made, it 
took twenty days to reach Charleston, in South Carolina. 

The re-assembled Congress of Massachusetts voted to raise 
thirteen thousand six liundred men, arranged presently into 
twenty-seven regiments. The other New England colonies 
were called upon to make up the army to thirty thousand 
men. Ward was appointed captain general, Thomas lieu- 
tenant general. A regiment of artillery was authorized, the 
command being given to Gridley, appointed also chief engi- 
neer. A captain's commission was promised to any person 
who would enlist fifty-nine men ; any person who could 
procure the enlistment of ten companies was to be made a 
colonel. This method facilitated raising the men, but brought 
many incompetent officers into the service. 

The issue of paper money, one of the greatest miseries of 
war, disused in Massachusetts for the last quarter of a cen- 
tury, was aiow revived. Provincial notes were issued to the 
amount of £100,000, ^333,333, in sums small enough to 
circulate as a currency. 

Depositions to show that the regulars had fired first at- 
Lexington, without provocation, were dispatched to England 
by a special packet, with a short but energetic address to the 
inhabitants of Great Britain, expressing the resolution " to 
die or be free." Franklin, to whom this address and the 
depositions were inclosed, was requested to have them printed 
and distributed, and to communicate them especially to the 
city of London. But Franklin had sailed for America, leaving 
the Massachusetts agency in the hands of Arthur Lee. 

The appeal to the other New England colonies Avas not 
made in vain. The Khode Island Assembly voted an army 
of observation of fifteen hundred men — a measure opposed, 
however, by Governor Wanton and two or three of the assis- 
tants, who entered a protest against it as dangerous to their 



Eevolutioxary incidents. 229 

■cliarter privileges, likely to involve the colony in a war, and 
■contrary to tlieir oath of alleo-iance. Stephen Hopkins and 
Samncl Ward, former governors and political rivals, were 
re-appointed delegates to the Continental Congress. Wanton 
Avas re-chosen governor at the election shortly after ; hut, as 
he did not appear to take the oaths, the Assembly directed 
that the duties of the office should he performed by Deputy 
Grovernor Cooke, who continued for the next three years at 
the head of affairs. A body of Ehode Island volunteers had 
appeared before Boston, led by Nathaniel Greene, a young 
iron-master, educated a Quaker, but now disowned by that 
communion on account of his military propensities. He was 
appointed by the Assembly commaneler-in-chief of the army 
of observation, with the rank of brigadier. 

The Connecticut Assembly voted to raise six regiments of 
a thousand men each, four of them to serve with the army 
before Boston. Wooster, Spencer, and Putnam, already com- 
missioned as generals, were each to have a regiment ; the 
other three were to be commanded by Hinman, Waterbury, 
;and Parsons. Putnam was already in the camp before Bos- 
ton. Old man of sixty, as he was, on hearing the news of 
the battle of Lexington, he had left his plow in the furrow 
to put himself at the head of the Connecticut volunteers. 

A special convention of delegates from the nearest towns, 
called together by the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, 
on hearing the news of the battle of Lexington, did not 
think it best to anticipate tlie action of a Provincial Con- 
gress, already summoned for the seventeenth of May, by 
taking steps for organizing an army ; but the several towns 
were requested to forward supplies to the volunteers who had 
followed Stark to Boston. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts 
Congress directed enlistments among the New Hampshire 
soldiers in camp. As the new regiments began to be formed, 
the volunteers returned home. For some weeks, the force 
before Boston was very small, amounting to only two or 
three thousand men. 

In hopes that matters might possibly be reconciled, Gov- 
■ernor Trumbull and the Connecticut Assembly sent a depu- 
tation to Gage, to act as mediators — a step which excited 
much alarm in Massachusetts. The Provincial Congress 
remonstrated against any separate negotiations ; and they 
20 



230 Historical and 

voted Gage a public enemy, an instrument in the hands of 
tyrants, whom there was no further obligation to obev. 
Some correspondence took place between Gage and Trumbull, 
but nothing came of the Connecticut mediation. 

The Assembly of New York having refused to appoint 
delegates to the new Continental Congress, an ardent strug- 
gle had taken place in the city, not altogether unaccompanied 
with violence, on the question of electing members to a. 
Provincial Convention, for the purpose of choosing such 
delegates. The popular party carried the day ; and by the 
Convention presently held, twelve delegates were appointed, 
any five of whom were authorized to represent the province- 
in the Congress. 

The Corresponding Committee of New York, on receiving 
news of the battle of Lexington, drew up an Association for 
the Defense of Colonial Rights, which everybody was called 
upon to sign — an expedient presently adopted in several 
other of the colonies, those especially, in which considerable 
differences of opinion existed. The same committee also 
issued a circular to the several county committees, recom- 
mending the speedy meeting of a Provincial Congress, "tO' 
deliberate on, and direct such measures as may be expedient 
for our common safety." 

News having arrived of the fight at Lexington, a great 
public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which measures 
were taken for entering into a volunteer military association, 
which soon pervaded the whole province. In spite of the 
admonitions of their elders, many of the young Quakers- 
took a part in this organization. Miftlin was the moving 
spirit of the whole. John Dickinson accepted the command, 
of a regiment, as did Thomas M'Kean and James Wilson, 
leading lawyers in the city. M'Kean was a native of Penn- 
sylvania, of Scotch-L'ish descent ; Wilson was born in Scot- 
land, but he had studied law, and for the last eight years 
had been a resident in Philadelphia, where his talents had 
raised him to conspicuous notice. The Assembly, which met 
shortly after, appropriated £1,800 toward the expenses of 
the volunteers. They also appointed a Committee of Safety,, 
of which Franklin, just returned from England, was made 
chairman. This committee took measures for the defensa 
of Philadelphia, and in a short time assumed the whole- 



Revolutionary Incidents. 231 

executive authortity. Franklin, Wilson, and Willing were 
added to the congressional delegation ; Galloway, at his own 
earnest request, was excused from serving. Governor Penn 
laid Lord North's conciliatory proposition before the Assem- 
bly, but it did not meet with much favor. 

The Delaware Assembly had already approved the doings 
of the late Continental Congress, and had appointed dele- 
gates to the new one, in which they were presently imitated 
by the Assembly of Maryland. 

The Virginia Convention, which met at Richmond to 
' appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had been 
persuaded, by the energy and eloquence of Patrick Henry, 
to take measures for enrolling a company of volunteers in 
each county. Before news had arrived of the battle o^ Lex- 
ington, Governor Dunmore had ordered the powder belonging 
to the province, to be taken from the public store at Wil- 
liamsburg, and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. 
This proceeding caused a great excitement, increased by news 
of the Lexington fight. Having collected some companies 
of the new volunteers, Henry marched toward Williamsburg, 
and compelled the king's receiver to give bills for the value 
of the powder taken away. Dunmore sent his family on 
board a ship in the river, fortified his palace, and issued a 
proclamation declaring Henry and his coadjutors guilty of 
rebellion ; but their conduct was sustained and approved by 
numerous county conventions. 

Li spite of all Martin's eff'orts to prevent it, a Provincial 
Congress met in North Carolina, simultaneously with the 
Assembly, and, for the most part, composed of the same 
members. Both bodies concurred in approving the proceed- 
ings of the late Continental Congress, and in appointing 
delegates to the new one. News arriving of the battle of 
Lexington, an Association was entered into by the friends of 
colonial rights, pledging the associators to defend those 
rights by force, if necessary. The citizens of Mechlenburg 
county carried their zeal so far, as to resolve, at a public 
meeting, to throw off the British connection, and they framed 
a formal Declaration of Independence. We append here, an 
authentic copy of these famous Mechlenburg Resolutions, 
which should be sacredly preserved in any record of the early 
acts of Sam. 



232 Historical and 



MECHLENBURG EESOLUTIONS. 

The citizens of Mechlenburg county, in this State, made a 
declaration of independence more than a year before Con- 
gress made theirs. 

North Carolina, "1 
Mecklenburg County, May 20, 1775. J • 

In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Mechlen- 
burg county, stimulated by the enthusiastic patriotism which 
elevates the mind above considerations of individual aggran- 
dizement, and scorning to shelter themselves from the impend- 
ing storm by submission to lawless power, etc., held several 
detached meetings, in each of which the individual senti- 
ments were " that the cause of Boston was the cause of all ; 
that their destinies were undoubtedly connected with those 
of their Eastern fellow-citizens — and that they must either 
submit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and to 
them an unrepresented Parliament might impose — or sup- 
port their brethren who were doomed to sustain the first shock 
of that power which, if successful there, would ultimately 
overwhelm all in the common calamity. Conformably to 
these principles, Col. Adam Alexander, through solicitations, 
issued an order to each captain's company in the county of 
Mechlenburg (then comprising the present county of Cabanus), 
directing each militia company to elect two persons, and dele- 
gate to them ample power to devise ways and means to aid 
and assist their suffering brethren in Boston, and also gen-, 
erally to adopt measures to extricate themselves from the 
impending storm, and to secure, unimpaired, their inalienable 
rights, privileges and liberties, from the dominant grasp of 
British imposition and tyranny. 

In conforming to said order, on the 19th of May, 1775, the 
said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with unlimited 
powers ; at which time official news, by express, arrived of 
the battle of Lexington on that day of the preceding month. 
Every delegate felt the value a.ud importance of the prize, 
and the awful and solemn crisis which had arrived — every 
bosom swelled with indignation at the malice, inveteracy, and 
insatiable revenge developed in the late attack upon Lexing- 
ton. The universal sentiment was — let us not flatter our- 
selves that popular harangues, or resolves — that popular vapor 



Revolutionary Incidents. 23:3 

v\-ill avert tlie storm, or vanquish our common enemy — let 
us deliberate, let us calculate the issue — the probable results, 
and then let us act with energy, as brethren leagued to 
preserve our property, our lives — and what is still more 
endearing — the liberties of America. Adam Alexander was 
then elected chairman, and John McKnitt Alexander, 
clerk. After a free and full discussion of the vai'ious objects 
for which the delegation had been convened, it was unani- 
mously ordained — 

1. That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any 
way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and 
dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, 
is an enemy to this country — to America — and to the inhe- 
rent and inalienable rights of man. 

2. That we, the citizens of Mechlenburg county, do hereby 
•dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the 
mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from allegiance 
to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, 
contract, association, with that nation, which has wantonly 
trampled on our rights and liberties — and inhumanly shed 
the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington. 

3. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independ- 
ent people, which is, and of right ought to be, a sovereign 
and self-governing association, under the control of no power 
other than that of our God, and the general government 
of the Congress — to the maintenance of which independence, 
we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, 
our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 

4. That, as we now acknowledge the existence and control 
of no law, or legal office, civil or military, within this county, 
we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, 
and every of our former laws — wherein, nevertheless, the 
crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding 
rights, privileges, immunities, or authorities. 

5. That it is also further decreed, that all, each, and every 
military officer in this county, is hereby reinstitated to his 
former command and ' authority , he acting conformably to 
these regulations. And that every member present of this 
delegation, shall henceforth be a civil officer — viz: a justice 
of the peace, in the character of a "Committee man," to 

20* 



234 Historical and 

issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, 
according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and 
union, and harmony in said county, and to use every exer- 
tion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom, through- 
out America, until a more general and organized government 
he established in this province. 

A number of bylaws were also added, merely to protect 
the Association from confusion, and to reo:ulate their general 
conduct as citizens. After sitting in the Court-house all 
night, neither sleepy, hungry, nor fatigued, and after dis- 
cussing every paragraph, they were all passed, sanctioned, . 
and decreed, unanimously, about 2 o'clock, a. m., May 20, 
In a few days, a deputation of said delegation convened, when 
Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to 
the Congress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said resolves 
and proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our three 
representatives, viz.: Eichard Caswell, Wm. Hooper, and 
Joseph Hughes, under express injunction, personally, and 
through the State representation, to use all possible means 
to have said proceedings sanctioned and approved by the Gen- 
eral Congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delega- 
tion learned that their proceedings were individually approved 
by the members of Congress, but that it was deemed prema- 
ture to lay them before the Hous^. A joint letter from said 
three members of Congress was also received, of the zeal in 
the common cause, and recommending perseverance, order, 
and energy. 

The subsequent harmony, unanimity, and exertion in the 
cause of liberty and independence, evidently resulting from 
these regulations, and the continued exertion of said delega- 
tion, apparently tranquilized this section of the State, and 
met with the concurrence and high approbation of the Coun- 
cil of Safety, who held their sessions at Newbern and Wil- 
mington, alternately, and who confirmed the nomination and 
acts of the delegation in their ofticial capacity. 

From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry of 
this county, who constituted and held their first session in 
Charlotte ; they then held their meetings regularly at Char- 
lotte, at Colonel James Harris', and at Colonel Phifer's„ 
alternately, one week at each place. It was a civil courts 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 235 

founded on military process. Before this judicature all sus- 
picious persons were made to appear, who were formally tried, 
and banished, or continued under guard. Its jurisdiction was 
as unlimited as toryism, and its decrees as final as the con- 
fidence and patriotism of the country. Several were arrested 
and brought before them from Lincoln, Kowan, and the 
adjacent counties. 

In addition to this instrument, is another, claimed to be even 
of prior date ; in which it will be seen that the form which 
the final Declaration assumed under the hand of Jefferson, 
was very clearly sketched out for him by the sagacious brain 
of George Mason. It is the only copy of this singular and 
valuable document which we have seen, and we shall, there- 
fore, lay it before the readers of Sam without hesitation, as 
it at least demonstrates, in connection with the Mechlenburgh 
Eesolutions, how general and spontaneous were the sentiments 
of the final Declaration. That Jefferson had this document 
before him, there can be no shadow of doubt : 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

{Qo'py of the first Draught, hy George Mason.) 

A declaration of rights, made by the representatives of 
the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free con- 
vention ; which rights do pertain to them and to their pos- 
terity, as the basis and foundation of government. 

1. That all men are created equally free and independent, 
and have certain inherent natural rights, of which they can 
not, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity.* Among 
ivhich are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means- 
of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and 
obtaining happiness and safety. 

2. That all power is, hy God and nature, vested in, and 
consequently derived from the people ; that magistrates are 
their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to 
them. 

3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the 
common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation 
or community. Of all the various modes and forms of 



236 Historical and 

government, that is best which is capable of producing" the 
greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most efiectu- 
ally secured against the danger of mal-administration ; and 
that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or 
contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath 
s,n indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, 
alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most 
■conducive to the public weal. 

4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive 
or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, 
hut in consideration of public services ; which not being 
descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legisla- 
tor, or judge to be hereditary. 

5. That the legislative and executive powers of the State 
should be separate and distinct from the judicial; and, that 
the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, 
by feeling and participating in the burthens of the people, 
they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, 
and return, unto that body from which they were originally 
taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, 
and regular elections. 

6. That elections of members to serve as representatives 
of the people in the legislature, ought to be free, and that 
all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common inter- 
est with, and attachment to the community, have the right 
of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their prop- 
erty for public uses, without their own consent, or that of 
their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to 
which they have not, in like manner, assented for the common 
good. 

7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of 
laws, by any authority, without consent of the representa- 
tives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought 
not to be exercised. 

8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man 
hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusa- 
tion, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call 
for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impar- 
tial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 23T 

ho. can not be found guilty, nor can lie be compelled to give 
evidence a;4'ainst himself; and, that no man be deprived of 
his liberty, except by the law of the land, or the judgment 
of his peers. 

0. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- 
sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
inflicted. 

10. (This article was inserted by the Convention.) 

11. Tliat in controversies respecting property, and in suits 
between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable 
to any other, and ought to be held sacred. 

12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great 
bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by 
despotic governments. 

13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body 
of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and 
safe defense of a free State ; that standing armies in time 
of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty ; and 
that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subor- 
dination to, and governed by the civil power. 

14. (This article was also inserted by the Convention.) 

15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, 
can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to 
justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and 
by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. 

16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Crea- 
tor, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only 
by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and there- 
fore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exer- 
cises of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, 
unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate ; unless, under 
cover of religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or 
the safety of society. And that it is the mutual duty of all, 
to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, toward 
each other. 

This Declaration of Rights was the first in America ; it 
received a few alterations or additions in the Virginia Conven- 
tion, (some of them not for the better,) and was afterward 
closely imitated by the other United States. 



238 Historical and 

The foregoing was copied verbatim, from the original, in 
the hand-writing of the author, Col. George Mason, of Vir- 
ginia, left in the possession of his son, Gen. John Mason, 
of Georgetown. In order to facilitate the comparison of it, 
with that which was adopted by the Convention, and is still 
in force, it has been thought proper to number the articles 
as in the adopted Declaration, omitting the tenth and four- 
teenth, which were inserted entire by the Convention, and to 
place those words in italics which were either expunged or 
altered, and put an asterisk where others were added. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Gage's Procla- 
mation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams — Battle of 
Bunker Hill. 

Previous to tlie battle of Lexington, the exjsediency of 
seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been suggested to 
the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Their attention 
was now re-called to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New 
Haven trader and shipmaster, wlio commanded a company of 
volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received a 
commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Ver- 
fmont to attempt the surprise of these fortresses. The 
attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, 
and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons 
deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth 
Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green 
Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. 
Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party and 
claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as 
a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty 
men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, 
surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned 
him to surrender " in the name of the great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress !" Crown Point was taken by 
Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both points 
were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of 
artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of 
which there was a great scarcity in tlie camp before Boston, 
fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently 
joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner, and 

239 



240 TTtstortcal and 

taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon, at Skenes- 
"borough, a new settlement, (now Whitehall, at the head of 
Lake Champlain,) founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, 
who had gone to England to solicit an appointment as Gov 
ernor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold 
proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised ilw 
post of St. John's, wlicre the navigation terminates, captured 
an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. 
Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire 
by a superior force from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, 
returned to Crown Point. 

The Continental Congress proceeded, meanwhile, to the 
delicate task of appointing a commander-in-chief. Unan- 
imity on this important occasion was much promoted by John 
Adams, very anxious to conciliate the good-will and support 
of the southern colonies. George Washington, present as a 
member of Congress from Virginia, was nominated by John- 
son, of Maryland, and unanimously chosen. It has been 
freely insinuated that "Sam" m-personally had a hand in 
this nomination, which took every body by surnrise, as the 
accomplished soldier of fortune Lee, or the English renegade 
Gates, had been more generally looked to as the nominee." 
See our plate on next page for explanation. He accepted 
the appointment in a modest speech, in which he declined 
any compensation beyond payment of expenses. Ai'temas 
Ward, Charles Lee, Phillip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, 
were chosen major generals ; Horatio Gates, adjutant general, 
with the rank of brigadier. Ward and Putnam were already 
in the camp before Boston, the one as captain general, under 
a Massachusetts commission, the other as a Connecticut 
brigadier. Schuyler had been recommended sa a major 
general by the New York Provincial Congress. Gates, an 
Englishman by birth, formerly a captain in the British 
service, had recently sold out his commission and settled in 
Virginia. Lee was a person of very eccentric habits, a mere 
soldier of fortune, but possessing a high reputation for military 
experience and science, having served with distinction both in 
Europe and America. He held, at the time of his election, 
a lieutenant colonel's commission in the British service. 
During the last eighteen months he had been traveling 
through America, and had recently been induced by Gates to 



Revolutionary Incidents. 241 

1 purchase lands in Virginia. For some unknown private 

■ cause, lie was bitterly hostile to the British ministry. Con- 

. gress undertook to indemnify him for any pecuniary loss he 

might sustain by entering into their service, and subsequently 

. advanced him ^30,000 for that purpose. Before accepting 

I this American appointment, he resigned his British commis- 

i sion in a formal letter to the Secretary of War. A strenuous 

opposition was made in Congress to the appointment of both 

Lee and Gates. Washington urged it on account of their 

military knowledge and experience, but they both occasioned 

him afterward a great deal of trouble. 

Pomeroy, Heath, and Thomas, of Massachusetts ; Wooster 
and Spencer, of Connecticut ; and Greene, of Ehode Island, 
already holding colony commissions as general officers, were 
commissioned as brigadiers. To these were added Sullivan, 
a member of Congress from New Hampshire, and Mont- 
gomery, of New York, a native of the north of Ireland, 
Though bred a lawyer, and without military experience, 
Sullivan soon proved himself an able officer. Montgomery 
had served with credit in a subaltern rank at the siege of 
Louisburg, and under Wolfe at Quebec. Within two or three 
years past he had disposed of his commission, had married 
into the Livingston family, and settled in New York, and, 
along with Schuyler, had been recommended for military 
rank by the New York Provincial Congress, of which he was 
a member. The colonels and other inferior officers in the 
camp before Boston were confirmed in their commands, and 
presently received continental commissions. The selection 
of general officers by Congress occasioned a good deal of 
heart-burning, particularly the Connecticut appointments. 
Wooster and Spencer, who had led regiments in the last 
French war, complained loudl}' at being superseded by Put- 
nam, who had not risen in that service beyond the rank of a 
lieutenant colonel. A representation on this subject was 
made to Congress by the Connecticut officers and the Connec- 
ticut Assembly. Pomeroy, from some disgust, had already 
retired, nor did he accept his continental commission. 

Before these new arrangements were completed, an import- 
ant battle had been already fought. Largely reinforced by 
the arrival of additional troops, under Generals Howe, Bur- 
goyne, and Clinton, distinguished and accomplished officers, 
21 



242 Historical and 

the British Army in Boston had been increased to twenty 
regular regiments, amounting to upward of ten thousand 
men. Thus strengthened, Gage had issued a proclamation 
of martial law, offering pardon, however, to all who would 
forthwith return to their allegiance, John Hancock and 
Samuel Adams excepted, whose guilt was too flagitious to be 
overlooked. 

We here insert a copy of this famous Proclamation of the 
English Gates, who was no renegade : — 

The minds of men having been gradually prepared for) 
the worst extremities, a number of armed persons, to thei 
amount of many thousands, assembled on the 19th of Aprili 
last, and from behind walls and lurking holes, attacked a; 
detachment of the king's troops, who, not expecting so con-i 
summate an act of frenzy, unprepared for vengeance, andi 
willing to decline, made use of their arms only in their owni 
defense. Since that period the rebels, deriving confidence! 
from impunity, have added insult to outrage ; have repeat-t 
edly fired upon the king's ships and subjects, with cannoni, 
and small arms ; have possessed the roads and other commu- 
nications by which the town of Boston was supplied with pro-j 
visions ; and, with a preposterous parade of military arrange-^, 
ment they affect to hold the army besieged ; while part oft 
their body make daily and indiscriminate invasions uponi 
private property, and with a wantonness of cruelty ever inci- 
dent to lawless tumult, carry depredation and distress- 
wherever they turn their steps. The actions of the 19th of 1 
April are of such notoriety, as must baffle all attempts to- 
contradict them, and the flames of buildings and other pro-i 
perty, from the islands, and adjacent country, for some weeks, 
past, spread a melancholy com firm ation of the subsequent 
assertions. 

In this exigency of complicated calamities, I avail myself 
of the last eftbrt within the bounds of my duty to spare the 
effusion of blood; to offer, and I do hereby in his Majesty's 
name, offer and promise his most gracious pardon, to all per- 
sons who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to 
the duties of peaceable subjects, excepting only from the 
benefits of such pardon, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
whose oSenses are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any; 
other consideration than that of condign punishment. 



Kevolutioxakv Incidents. 243 

J And to the end that no person within the limits of this 
iprofFered mercy may plead ignorance of the consequences of 
refusing it, I, by these presents proclaim, not only the per- 
Wns above named and excepted — but also all their adherents, 
associates and abettors — meaning- to comprehend in those 
terms, all and every person, and persons, of what class, 
lenomination or description, soever, who have appeared in 
^irms against the king's government, and shall not lay down 
the same as afore mentioned ; and likewise all such as shall 
i ^0 take up arms after the date hereof, or who shall in anywise 
jorotect or conceal such offenders, or assist them with money, 
jorovision, cattle, arms, ammunition, carriages, or any other 
aecessary for subsistence or offense, or shall hold secret cor- 
respondence with them by letter, message, signal, or othcr- 
Wise, to be rebels and traitors, and as such to be treated. 

And whereas, during the continuance of the present unnat- 
Iral rebellion, justice can not be administered by the common 
law of the land, the course whereof has, for a long time past, 
been violently impeded, and wholly interrupted, from whence 
results a necessity for using and exercising the law martial ; 
[ have therefore thought fit, by the authority vested in me, 
by the royal charter to this province, to publish, and I do 
tiereby publish, and proclaim, and order the use and exercise 
rf the law martial, within and throughout this province, for 
bo long time as' the present unhappy occasion shall necessa- 
rily require ; whereof all persons are hereby required to take 
Qotice, and govern themselves as well to maintain order and 
regularity among the peaceable inhabitants of the province, 
as to resist, encounter, and subdue the rebels and traitors 
^bove described, by such as shall be called upon for those 
[purposes. 

The New England army, before Boston, sixteen thousand 
iStrong, consisted of thirty-six regiments, twenty-seven from 
rMassachusetts, and three from each of the other colonies. 
^John Whitcombe, who had led a regiment in the French war, 
and Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Congress, and chair- 
'man of the Committee of Safety, had been appointed first 
and second major-generals of the Massachusetts forces. 

To make the blockade of Boston more complete, by order 
!of tlie Committee of Safety, Colonel Prescott, with about a 



244 Historical and 

thousand men, including a company of artillery, with two 
field-pieces, marched at nightfall to take possession of Bunker 
Hill, a considerahle eminence just within the peninsula of 
Charlestown, and commanding the great northern road to Bos- 
ton By some mistake, Prescott passed Bunker Hill and 
advanced to Breed's Hill, at the southei:n end of the penin-' 
sula, and much nearer Boston. Before 'morning the troops 
had thrown up a considerahle redoubt, greatly to the surprise 
of the British, who opened immediately a fire upon them, 
from the ships in the harhor and the batteries in Boston.; 
Under the direction of Gridley and of Knox, late commander 
of a Boston artillery militia company, the provincials labored 
on, undisturbed by the fire. By noon they had thrown upa' 
breastwork extending from the redoubt down the northern' 
slope of the hill, toward the water. Cannon mounted in the 
redoubt would command the harbor, and might make Bostoiv 
itself untenable. To avert this threatened danger, three 
thousand men, picked corps of the British army, led by Gen- 
erals Howe and Pigot, embarked in boats from the wharves' 
in Boston, and landed at the eastern foot of Breed's Hill. 
Such was the want of order and system in the provincial! 
camp, and so little was the apprehension of immediate attack,; 
that the same troops who had been working all night, still! 
occupied the in trench men ts. General Putnam was on the 
field, but he appears to have had no troops, and no command. 
The same was the case with General Warren, whom the 
rumor of attack had drawn from Cambridge. Two New 
Hampshire regiments, under Stark, arrived on the ground 
just before the action began, and took up a position on the-, 
left of the unfinished breastwork, but some two hundred 
yards in the rear, under an imperfect cover, made by pulling 
up the rail fences, placing them in parallel lines a few feet 
apart, and filling the intervening space with the new-mown 
hay which lay scattered on the hill. Other troops had been 
orclerod to Charlestown ; but, owing to some misapprehension, 
they did not arrive in season to take part in the battle. The 
supply of ammunition was very short. 

Here is Washington Irving's description of this important 
battle, contained in his new "Life of Washington." He here . 
takes up the word from Hildreth. 



EEVOLUTIOyARY IXCIDEXTS'. 245 



I* 



THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



: The souud of dram and trumpet, tlie clatter of hoofs, the 
ittling of gun carriages, and all the other military din and 
astle in the streets of Boston, soon apprised the Americans, 
a their rudely fortified hight, of an impending attack. 
hey were ill-fitted to withstand it, being jaded by the night's 
\hor and want of sleep, hungry and thirsty, having brought 
fit scanty supplies, and oppressed by the heat of the weather, 
rescott sent repi'ated messages to General AYard, asking 

inforccments and provisions. Putnam seconded the request 
I person, urging the exigencies of the case. 

Ward hesitated. Ho feared to weaken his main body at 
umbridge, as his military stores were deposited there, and 

miglit have to sustain the principal attack. At length, 
iving taken advice of the Council of Safety, he issued 
■ders to Colonels Stark and Read, then at Medford, to march 
) the relief of Prescott, with their New Hampshire regi- 
lents. The order reached Medford about eleven o'clock, 
(.mmunition was distributed in all haste — two flints, a gill 
f powder, and fifteen balls to each man. The balls had to 
suited to the difterent calibres of the guns ; the powder 
) be carried in powder-horns, or loose in the pocket, for there 
ere no cartridges prepared. It was the rude turn-out of 
f3oman soldiery, destitute of regular accoutrements. 

In the meanwhile, the Americans on Breed's Hill were 
|istaining the fire from the ships and from the battery on 
jopp's Hill, which opened upon them about ten o'clock, 
hey returned an occasional shot from one corner of the re- 
oubt, without much harm to the enemy, and continued, 
trengthening their position until about eleven o'clock, when 
liey ceased to work, piled up their intrencliing tools in the 
?ar, and looked out anxiously and impatiently for the anti- 
pated reinforcements and supplies. 

About this time. General Putnam, who had been to head- 
uarters, arrived at the redoubt, on horseback. Some words 
lassed between him and Prescott with regard to the intrench- 
ig tools, which have been variously reported. 

The most probable version is, that he urged to have them 
aken from their present place, where they might fall into 
21* 



246 Historical and 

the hands of the enemy, and be carried to Bunker Hill, to. 
be employed in throwing up a redoubt, which was part of 
the original plan, and which would be very important, should 
the troops be obliged to retreat from Breed's Hill. To this, 
Prescott demurred that those employed to convey them, and 
who were already jaded with toil, might not return to his 
redoubt. A large part of the tools were ultimately carried 
to Bunker Hill, and a breastwork commenced, by order of 
General Putnam. The importance of such a work was after- 
ward made apparent. 

About noon, the Americans descried twenty-eight barges 
crossing from Boston in parallel lines. They contained a 
large detachment of grenadiers, rangers and light infantry, 
admirably equipped, and commanded by Major General Howe. 
They made a splendid and formidable appearance with their 
scarlet uniforms, and the sun flashing upon muskets and 
bayonets, and brass field pieces. A heavy fire from the ships 
and batteries covered their advance, but no attempt was made 
to oppose them, and they landed about one o'clock at Moul- 
ton's point, a little to the north of Breed's Hill. 

Here General Howe made a pause. On reconnoitering the 
works from this point, the Americans appeared to be much 
more strongly posted than he had imagined. He descried 
the troops also hastening to their assistance. These were 
the New Hampshire troops, led on by Stark. -Howe imme- 
diately sent over to General Gage for more forces and a 
supply of cannon-balls, those brought by him being found, 
through some egregious oversight, too large for the ordnance. 
While awaiting their arrival, refreshments were served out 
to the troops, with "grog" by the bucketful ; and tantalizing 
it was to the hungry and thirsty Provincials to look down 
from their ramparts of earth and see their invaders seated 
in groups upon the grass, eating and drinking, and preparing 
themselves. by a hearty meal for the coming encounter. 

The only consolation was to take advantage of the delay, 
while the enemy were carousing, to strengthen their position. 
The breastwork on the left of the position extended to what 
was called the Slough, but beyond this, the ridge of the hill 
and the slope toward the Mystic River, were undefended, 
leaving a pass by which the enemy might turn the left flank 
of the position, and seize upon Bunker Hill. Putnam ordered- 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 247 

his cliosen officer, Captain Knowlton, to cover this pass with 
the Connecticut troops under his command. A novel kind of 
rampart, savoring of rural device, was suggested by the 
rustic General. 

About six hundred feet in the rear of the redoubt, and 
about one hundred feet to the left of the breastwork, was a 
post-and-rail fence, set in a low foot-wall of stone, and ex- 
tending down to Mystic River. The posts and rails of another 
fence were hastily pulled up and set a few feet in behind 
this, and the intermediate space was filled up with new-mown 
hay, from the adjacent meadows. The double fence, it will 
be found, proved an important protection to the redoubt, 
although there still remained an unprotected interval of 
about seven hundred feet. 

While Knowlton and his men were putting up this fence, 
Putnam proceeded with other of his troops to throw up the 
works on Bunker Hill, dispatching his son, Captain Putnam, 
on horseback, to hurry up the remainder of his men from 
Cambridge. By this time, his compeer in French and Indian 
warfare, the veteran Stark, made his appearance with the 
New Hampshire troops, five hundred strong. He had grown 
cool and wary with age, and his march from Medford, a dis- 
tance of five or six miles, had been in character. He led his 
men at a moderate pace, to bring them into action fresh and 
vigorous. In crossing the Neck, which was enfiladed by the 
enemy's ships and batteries, Captain Dearborn, who was by 
his side, suggested a quick step. The veteran shook his 
head. '* One fresh man in action is worth ten tired ones," 
replied he, and marched steadily on. 

Putnam detained some of Stark's men, to aid in throwing 
up the works on Bunker Hill, and directed him to reinforce 
Knowlton with the rest. 

Stark made a short speech to his men, now that they were 
likely to have warm work. He then pushed on, and did 
good service that day at the rustic bulwark. 

About two o'clock, Warren arrived on the bights, ready to 
engage in their perilous defense, although he had opposed 
the scheme of their occupation. He had recently been elected 
a Major General, but had not received his commission ; like 
Poraeroy, he came to serve in the ranks, with a musket on 
his shoulder. 



248 Historical and 

Putnam offered him the command at the fence ; he declined" 
it, and merely asked where he could be of most service as a 
volunteer. Putnam pointed to the redoubt, observing that 
he would be under cover. " Don't think 1 seek a place of 
safety," replied Warren quickly; "where will the attack be 
hottest?" Putnam still pointed to the redoubt. "That is 
the enemy's object ; if that can be maintained, the day is 
ours." Warren was cheered by the troops as he entered the 
redoubt. Colonel Prescott tendered him the command. He 
again declined. " I have come to serve only as a volunteer, 
and shall be happy to learn from a soldier of your experi- 
ence." Such were the spirits assembled on these perilous 
hights. 

The British now prepared for a general assault. An easy 
victory was anticipated; the main thought was, how to make 
it most effectual. The left wing, commanded by General 
Pigot, was to mount the hill and force the redoubt, while 
General Howe, with the right wing, was to push on between 
the fort and Mystic Kiver, turn the left flank of the Amer- 
icans, and cut off their retreat. 

General Pigot accordingly advanced up the hill, under 
cover of a fire from field-pieces and howitzers, planted on a 
small bight, near the landing-place on Moulton's Point. His 
troops commenced a discharge of musketry, while yet at a 
long distance from the redoubts. 

The Americans within the works, obedient to strict com- 
mand, retained their fire until the enemy were within thirty 
or forty paces, when they opened upon them with a tremen- 
dous volley. Being all marksmen, accustomed to take 
deliberate aim, the slaughter was immense, and especially 
fatal to ofiicers. The assailants fell back in some confusion, 
but, rallied on by their officers, advanced within pistol-shot. 
Another volley, more effective than the first, made them 
again recoil. To add to their confusion, they were galled by 
a flanking fire fx'om the handful of Provincials posted in 
Charlestown. Shocked at the carnage, and seeing the con- 
fusion of his troops, General Pigot was urged to give the 
word for a retreat. 

In the meanwhile, General Howe, with the left wing, 
advanced along the Mystic Eiver, toward the fence where 
Stark, Eead, and Knowlton were stationed, thinking to carry 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 249 

this slight breastwork with ease, and so get in the rear of 
the fortress. His artillery proved of little avail, being 
stopped by a swampy piece of ground, while his columns 
suffered from two or three field-pieces, with which Putnam 
had fortified the fence. Howe's men kept up a fire of mus- 
ketry as they advanced; but not taking aim, their shot 
passed over the heads of the Americans. The latter had 
received the same orders with those in the redoubt — not to 
fire until the enemy should be within thirty paces. Some 
few transgressed tlie command. Putnam rode up, and 
swoi'e he would cut down the next man that fired contrary to 
orders. 

When the British arrived within the stated distance, a 
sheeted fire opened upon them from rifles, muskets, and 
fowling-pieces, all leveled with deadly aim. The carnage, 
as in the other instance, was horrible. The British were 
thrown into confusion, and fell back ; some even retreated to 
the boats. 

There was a general pause on the part of the British. 
The American oflicers availed themselves of it, to prepare 
for another attack, which must soon be made, Prescott 
mingled among his men in the redoubt, who were all 1 1 high 
spirits at the severe check they had given the " regulars." 
He praised them for their steadfastness in maintaining their 
post, and their good conduct in reserving their fire until the 
word of command, and exhorted them to do the same in the 
next attack. 

Putnam rode about Bunker Hill and its skirts, to rally 
and bring on reinforcements, which had been checked or 
scattered in crossing Charlestown Neck, by the raking fire 
from the ships and batteries. Before many could be brought 
to the scene of action, the British had commenced their 
second attack. They again ascended the hill to storm the 
redoubt ; their advance was covered, as before, by discharges 
of artillery. Charlestown, which liad annoyed them on the 
first attack by a flanking fire, was in flames by shells thrown 
from Gopp's Hill, and by marines from the ships. Being 
built of wood, the place was soon wrapped in a general con- 
llagration. 

The thunder of artillery from the batteries and ships, the 
bursting of bombshells, the sharp discharges of musketry, 



250 Historical and 

the sh juts and yells of the combatants, the crash of burning 
buildings, and the dense volumes of smoke which obscured 
the summer sun, all formed a tremendous spectacle. " Sure 
I am," said Bargojne, in one of his letters — " Sure I am, 
nothing ever has or ever can be more dreadfully terrible 
than what was to be seen or heard at this time. The most 
incessant discharge of guns that ever was heard by mortal 
ears." 

The American troops, though unused to war, stood undis- 
mayed amidst a scene where it was bursting upon them with 
all its horrors. Reserving their fire as before, until the 
enemy was close at hand, they again poured forth repeated 
voUej's, witli the fatal aim of sharpshooters. The British 
stood the first shock, and continued to advance ; but the 
incessant stream of fire staffffered them. Their officers 
remonstrated, threatened, and even attempted to goad them 
on with their swords ; but the havoc was too deadly ; whole 
ranks were mowed down ; many of the officers were either 
slain or wounded, and among them several of the staff" of 
General Howe. The troops again gave way, and retreated 
down the hill. 

All this passed under the eyes of thousands of spectators 
of both sexes and" all ages, watching from afar, every turn 
of the battle in which the lives of those most dear to them, 
were at hazard. The British soldiery in Boston, gazed with 
astonishment and incredulity at the resolute and protracted 
stand of the raw militia, whom they had been taught t(? 
despise, and at the havoc made among their own veteran 
troops. Every convoy of wounded brought over to the town, 
increased their consternation ; and General Clinton, who had 
watched the action from Copp's Hill, embarking in a boat, 
hurried over as a volunteer, taking with him reinforcements. 

A third attack was now determined on, though some of 
Howe's officers remonstrated, declaring it would be downright 
butchery. A different plan was adopted. Instead of advanc- 
ing in front of the redoubt, it was to be taken in flank on 
the left, where the open space between ihe breastwork and 
the fortified fence, presented a weak point. It having been 
accidentally discovered that the ammunition of the Amer- 
icans was nearly expended, preparations were made to carry 
the works at the point of the b&yonet ; and the soldiery 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 251 

threw off their knapsacks, and some even their coats, to be 
more light for action. 

General Howe, with the main body, now made a feint 
attack on the fortified fence ; but while a part of his force 
was thus engaged, the rest brought some field-pieces to 
enfilade the breastwork on the left of the redoubt. A 
raking fire soon drove the Americans out of this exposed 
place into the inclosure. Much damage, too, was done in 
the latter by balls which entered the sallyport. 

The troops were now led on to assail the works ; those 
who flinched, were, as before, goaded on by the swords of the 
officers. The Americans again reserved their fire until their 
assailants were close at hand, then made a murderous volley, 
by which several officers were laid low, and General Howe 
himself was wounded in the foot. 

The British soldiery this time likewise reserved their fire, 
and rushed on with fixed bayonets. Clinton and Pigot had 
reached the southern and eastern sides of the redoubt, and 
it was now assailed on three sides at once. Prescott ordered 
those who had no bayonets, to retire to the back part of the 
redoubt, and fire on the enemy fts they showed themselves 
on the parapet. The first who mounted, exclaimed in tri- 
umph, " The day is ours !" 

He was instantly shot down, and so were several others 
who mounted about the same time. The Americans, however, 
had fired their last round, their ammunition was exhausted ; 
and now succeeded a desperate and deadly struggle, hand to 
hand, with bayonets, stones, and the stocks of their, muskets. 

At length, as the British continued to pour in, Prescott 
gave the order to retreat. His men had to cut their way 
through two divisions of the enemy, who were getting in the 
rear of the redoubt, and they received a destructive volley 
from those who had formed on the captured works. By that 
volley fell the patriot Warren, who had distinguished him- 
self throughout the action. He was among the last to leave 
the redoubt, and had scarce done so, when he was shot through 
the head with a musket ball, and fell dead on the ground. 

While the Americans were thus slowly dislodged from the 
redoubt, Stark, Read, and Knowlton maintained their ground 
at the fortified fence, v/hich indeed, had been nobly defended 
throughout the action. Pomeroy distinguished himself here- 



252 Historical and 

by liis sliarpshooting, until his musket was shattered by a 
ball. The resistance at this hastily constructed work, was 
kept up after the troops in the redoubt had given way, and 
until Colonel Prescott had left the hill, thus defeating Gen- 
eral Howe's design of cutting off the retreat of the main 
body, which would have produced a scene of direful confusion 
and slaughter. Having effected their purpose, the brave 
associates of the fence abandoned their weak outpost, retiring 
slowly, and disputing the ground inch by inch, with a regu- 
larity remarkable in troops, many of whom had never before 
been in action. 

The main retreat was across Bunker Hill, where Putnam 
had endeavored to throw up a breastwork. The veteran, 
sword in hand, rode to the rear of the retreating troops, 
regardless of the balls whistling about him. His only 
thought was to rally them at the unfinished works. " Halt ! 
make a stand here!" cried he, "we can check them yet. In 
Ood's name, form, and give them one shot more." 

Pomeroy, wielding his shattered maisket as a truncheon, 
seconded him in his efforts to stay the torrent. It was 
impossible, however, to bring the troops to a stand. They 
continued on down the hill to the Neck, and across to Cam- 
bridge, exposed to a raking fire from the ships and batteries, 
and only protected by a single piece of ordnance. The 
British were too exhausted to pursue them ; they contented 
themselves with taking possession of Bunker Hill, were 
reinforced from Boston, and threw up additional works during 
the night. 

The provincials might consider such a defeat as little less 
than victory. Out of three thousand British troops engaged, 
over one thousand were killed or wounded — a loss, such as 
few battles can show. The ministry wore so little satisfied, 
with the accounts sent, them of this transaction, that Gage 
was superseded in command. The provincial loss was four 
hundred and fifty ; but among the slain was General War- 
ren. Ardent, sincere, disinterested, and indefatigable, his 
death was deeply deplored. He left an infant family with 
small means of support ; for whom, by the zeal and perse- 
verance of Arnold, the Continental Congress was at last 
pushed to make some provision. The battle of Bunker Hill, 



Reyolutionaey Incidents. 255 

li^fires ill history, as having tested the ability of the provin- 
cials to ni et a British army in the field. That, however, 
was a point, on which the provincials themselves never had any 
doubts, and the battle, at the moment, was less thought of 
than now. Nor were the men engaged in it, all heroes. 
The conduct of several officers on that day, was investigated 
by court-martial, and one, at least, was cashiered for cow- 
ardice. 

In contrast with the dastardly conduct of a few animals 
known as men, at the battle of Bunker Hill, we give the 
following letter from one of the daughters of " Sam," written 
about this period, which exhibits the true sentiment of that 
momentous time, and coming even from the hearts of the 
Women of America. 

From the Richmond Enquirer. 
FEMALE PATRIOTISM. 

The manuscript of the following interesting letter was 
politely forwarded to us by a gentleman of Baltimore, and 
was found among some old papers of a distinguished lady of 
Philadelphia. It is a copy of a letter from a lady of Phila- 
delphia to a British officer at Boston, written immediately 
after the battle of Lexington, and previous to the declaration 
of Independence. It fully exhibits the feelings of those 
times. A finer spirit never animated the breasts of the 
Boman matrons, than the following letter breathes : 

Sir : We received a letter from you wherein you let Mr. 
S, know that you had written directly after the battle of 
Lexington, particularly to me, knowing my martial spirit, and 
that I would delight to read the exploits of heroes. Surely, 
my friend, you must mean tlie New England heroes, as they 
alone performed exploits worthy of fame — while the regulars, 
vastly superior in numbers, were obliged to retreat with a 
rapidity unequalled except by the French at the battle of 
Minden. Indeed, General Gage gives them their due credit, 
in his letter home, where he says Lord Percy was remarkable 
for his activity. You will not, I hope, take offiLMise at any 
expression that, in the warmth of my heart, shall escape me, 
when I assure you that, though we consider you a public enemy, , 
we regard you as a private friend ; and while we detest the 
22 



254: Historical and 

cause you are fighting for, we wish well to your own personal 
interest and safety. Thus far by way of apology. As to the 
martial spirit you suppose me to possess, you are greatly 
mistaken. I tremble at the thought of war, and of all wars, 
a oivil one ; our all is at stake, and we are called upon by 
every tie that is dear and sacred, to exert the spirit that 
Heaven has given to us in this righteous struggle for 
liberty. 

I will tell you what I have done. My only brother I have 
sent to the camp, with my prayers and blessings ; I hope he 
will not disgrace me ; I am confident he will behave with 
honor, and emulate the great examples he has before him ; 
and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should go. I have 
retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family ; 
tea I have not drank since last Christmas, nor bought a new 
cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington ; and, what I 
never did before, have learned to knit, and am now making 
stockings of American wool for my servants, and this way 
do I throw in my mite for the public good. I know this, that 
as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be 
worthy of life. I have the pleasure to assure you that these 
are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have 
sacrificed both assemblies, parties of pleasure, tea drinking, 
and finery, to that great spirit of patriotism that actuates all 
ranks and degrees of people throughout this extensive conti 
uent. If these are the sentiments of females, what must 
glow in the breasts of our husbands, brothers and sons? 
They are, as with one heart, determined to die or be free. It 
is not a quibble in politics, a science which few understand, 
which we are contending for ; it is this plain truth, which 
the most ignorant peasant knows, and is clear to the weakest 
capacity, that no man has a right to take their money without 
their consent. The supposition is ridiculous and absurd, as 
none but highwaymen and robbers attempt it. • Can you, my 
friend, reconcile it with your own good sense, that a body of 
men in Great Britain, who have little intercourse with 
America, and, of course, know nothing of us, nor are sup- 
posed to see or feel the misery they would inflict upon us, 
shall invest themselves with a power to command our lives 
and properties, at all times and in all cases whatsoever ? You 
say you are no politician. Oh, sir, it requires no Machia- 



i 



Kevolutionarv Incidents. 255 

velian liead to develope this, and to discover this tyranny 
and oppression. It is written with a sunbeam. Every one 
will see and know it, because it will make thom feel, and we 
shall be unworthy of the blessing of Heaven if we ever 
submit to it. 

All ranks of men among us are in arms. Nothing is 
heard now in our streets but the trumpet and the drum ; 
and the universal cry is "Americans to arms." All your 
friends are officers; there are Captain S. B., Lieutenant B., 
and Captain J. S. We have five regiments in the city and 
county of Philadelphia, complete in arms and uniform, and 
very expert in their military manoeuvres. We have companies 
of light horse, light infantry, grenadiers, riflemen, and 
Indians, several companies of artillery, and some excellent 
brass cannon and field pieces. Add to this, that every county 
in Pennsylvania, and the Delaware government, can send 
two thousand men to the field. Heaven seems to smile on 
us, for in the memory of man never were known such quan- 
tities of flax, and sheep without number. We are maicing 
powder fast, and do not want for ammunition. In short, we 
want for nothing but ships of war to defend us, which we could 
procure by making alliances ; but such is our attachment to 
Great Britain, that we sincerely wish for reconciliation, and 
cannot bear the thought of throwing off" all dependence upon 
her, which such a step would assuredly lead to. The God of 
Mercy will, I hope, open the eyes of our king, that he may 
see that in seeking our destruction, he will go near to com- 
plete his own. It is my ardent prayer that the eff'usion of 
blood may be stopped. We hope yet to see you in this city, 
a friend to the liberties of America, which will give infinite 
satisfaction to Your sincere friend, C. L. 

Ih Captain S., in Boston. 

But here is a still more touching incident, which, though 

at first glance Amazonian in aspect, reveals truthfully the 

true sentiment of the mothers of the heroes of an heroic 

period : 

From the Dedham (Mass.) Register, of December, 1820. 

FEMALE PEKSEVERANCE. 

We were mucTi gratified to learn that during the sitting 

of the Court in this town, the last week, Mrs. Gannett, of 



256 Historical and 

Sharon, in this county, presented for renewal, her claims for 
services rendered her country, as a soldier in the revolution- 
ary army. The following brief sketch, it is presumed, will 
not he uninterestino; : 

This extraordinary woman is now in the sixty-second year 
of her age. She possesses a clear understanding, and a 
general knowledge of passing events — fluent in speech, and 
delivers her sentiments in correct language, with deliberate 
and measured accents — easy in her deportment, affable in 
her manners, robust and masculine in her appearance. She 
was about eighteen years of age when our revolutionary 
struggle commenced. The patriotic sentiments which in- - 
spired the heroes of those days, and urged them to battle^ 
found their way to a female bosom. The news of the carnage 
which had taken place on the plains of Lexington, had 
reached her dwelling — the sound of the cannon at Bunker 
Hill had vibrated on her ears — yet, instead of diminishing 
her ardor, it only served to increase her enthusiasm in the 
sacred cause of liberty, in which cause she beheld her country 
engaged. She privately quitted her peaceful home, and the 
habiliments of her sex, and appeared at the headquarters of 
the American army as a young man, anxious to join his 
efforts to those of his countrymen, in their endeavors to 
oppose the inroads and encroachments of the common enemy. 
She was received and enrolled in tlie army by the name of 
Robert ShurtUffe. For the space of three years she performed 
the duties, and endured the hardships and fatigues, of a 
soldier, during which time she gained the contidence of her 
oflicers by her expertness and precision in the manual exer- 
cise, and by her exemplary conduct. She was a volunteer in 
several hazardous enterprises, and was twice wounded by 
musket balls. So well did she contrive to conceal her sex, 
that her companions in arms had not the least suspicion that 
this " blooming soldier " fighting by their sides was a female, 
till at length, a severe wound which she had received in 
battle, and which had well nigh closed her earthly campaign, 
occasioned the discovery. On her discovery, she quitted the 
army, and became intimate in the families of General Wash- 
ington and other distinguished officers of the revolution. A 
few years afterward she was married to her present husband, 
and is now the mother of several children. Of these facts 



Eevolutiontary Incidents. 257 

there can be no doubt. There are many living witnesses in 
this county, who recognized her on her appearance at the 
court, and were ready to attest to her services. We often 
hear of such heroines in other countries, hut this is an 
instance in our own country, and within the circle of our 
acquaintance. 

Heath was appointed major-general in Warren's place, 
and a similar commission was given to Frye, both colonels in 
the Masachusetts army, and Frye, commander-in-chief of the 
Massachusetts forces at the unfortunate capture of Fort Wil- 
liam Henry. But these commissions, and the other previous 
ones, were soon superseded by the new continental appoint- 
ments. About a fortniglit after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
Washington, attended by several ardent young men from 
the southern provinces, arrived in the camp, and assumed 
the command. He found there, excellent materials for an 
array, but great deficiencies of arms and ammunition, and 
some great defects of discipline and organization. To pre- 
vent the British, not greatly inferior in numbers, and 
perfectly armed, equipped, and disciplined, from penetrating 
into the country, it was necessary to guard a circuit of eight 
or nine miles. Washington established his head-quarters at 
Cambridge. Ward, in command of the right wing, was 
stationed at Eoxbury; and Lee, with the left, on Prospect 
Hill. Joseph Trumbull, a son of the governor of Connecti- 
cut, and commissary for the troops of that province, was 
appointed commissary-general of the consolidated army. 
The post of quartermaster-general was given by Washing- 
ton, under authority from Congress, to Mifflin, who had fol- 
lowed him from Philadelphia as an aid-de-camp. The post 
of secretary to the commander-in-chief was bestowed on 
Joseph Reed, another Philadelphian ; but, on Reed's return 
to Philadelphia a few months afterward, \^ashington selected 
for that important and confidential duty, Robert H. Harri- 
son, a lawyer of Maryland, with whom he had formerly had 
business relations, and who continued for several years to 
discharge its responsible duties, very much to the general's 
satisfaction. Edmund Randolph, a nephew of Peyton Ran- 
dolph, but whose father, the attorney-general of Virginia, 
22* 



258 Historical and 

was a decided Koyalist, had accompanied the commander-in- 
chief to Boston, and acted for a while as aid-de-camp. But 
he was presently recalled to Virginia hy his uncle's sudden 
death. 

The camp was soon joined hy some companies of riflemen 
from Maryland, Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania, 
enlisted under the orders of Congress. One of the Virginia 
companies was led hy Daniel Morgan, formerly a wagoner, 
in which capacity he had heen wounded at Braddock's defeat. 
A man of Herculean frame and indomitahle energy, his 
q[ualities as a partisan soon made him distinguished. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

I He first Sea Fight — and origin of the U. S. Navy — Ethan Allen taken 
captive and sent to England — Capture of St. Johns and Montreal — The 
expedition against Quebec — Reorganization of the Army — Lord Howe in 
Boston — ^Movements of the British in Virginia. 

The Gasp^, an armed scliooner in the revenue service, liad 
given great and often unnecessary annoyance to the shipping 
employed in Narraganset Bay. A plan, in consequence, had 
heen formed for her destruction. Enticed into shoal water 
by a schooner, to which she had been induced to give chase, 
she grounded, and was boarded and burned by a party from 
Providence. In consequence of this daring outrage, an act 
of Parliament had passed for sending to England for trial 
all persons concerned in the colonies in burning or destroying 
his Majesty's ships, dock-yards, or military stores. A reward 
of X600 sterling, and a free pardon Hb any accomplice, was 
offered for the discovery of the destroyers of the Gaspe ; and 
a board was constituted to examine into the matter, com- 
posed of the governor of Ehode Island, the chief justices of 
Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and the judge 
of the Admiralty for the Northern District. But, though 
the perpetrators were well known, no legal evidence could be 
obtained against them. 

Hildreth speaks of this as the first sea fight, from which 
statement, however, the old records vary somewhat, as the 
following narrative will show : — 

THE FIRST SEA FIGHT. 

The late Bev. Dr. Bentlcy, of Salem, Massachusetts, whose 
decease was equally deplored by the friends of religion, 

259 



260 Historical and 

patriotism, and literature — who for many years enriched the 
columns of the ''Essex Register" \i\ih. his remarks, when 
speaking of the revolutionary pension law, seized the oppor- 
tunity to give the following interesting scrap of history : — 
" The following history may discover how a man may 
engage in the public service, and yet not be qualified accord 
ing to law, for the bounty of a term short of one year's service. 
Joshua Ward, who belonged to Salem, but who lived many 
years at Marblehead, a painter, marched on the 19th of 
April to Charlestown Neck, as a fifer of the first company in 
Colonel Timothy Pickering's regiment of militia, commanded 
by Captain William Pickman, and soon after entered the 
army under Captain Thomas Barnes. From Cambridge, he 
was ordered to Watertown to guard the public stores, and 
remained at this station till the battle of Bunker Hill. He 
then joined the regiment under Colonel Mansfield, on Pros- 
pect Hill, in Charlestown, in the Massachusetts line, and 
acted as fife-major till he joined General Sullivan's brigade, 
on Winter Hill, when he was promoted to fife-major-general. 
He continued in the service till the first day of January, 
1776, when he was discharged — having continued th^ time 
of his enlistment. He then entered Captain Benjamin Ward's 
company and performed garrison duty at Fort William and 
Mary, now Fort Pickering, till the 19th of June following. 
He then volunteered with the first Lieutenant Haraden, a 
well-known, brave and able ofiicer, with others of his com- 
panions, on board the Tyrannicide, a public armed brig of 
fourteen guns and seventy-five men, commanded by Captain 
John Fiske, afterward a major-general in Massachusetts, and 
eminent by his public services. He was in this brig during 
three cruises, and was at the taking of eight prizes, the first 
of which was the king's armed schooner Dispatch, belonging 
to Lord Howe's fleet, then on their passage to New York, it 
being the 10th July. In the engagement one man was killed 
in the Tyrannicide, three wounded, and one died of his wounds. 
He continued in the vessel till the 14th of February, 1777, 
when he returned from a four and a half month's cruise in 
the West Indies, and all were discharged. He is now 72 
years of age. In the action with the Dispatch, which lasted 
seven glasses, her commander, John Goodrich, 2d lieutenant 
of the Eenown, of fifty guns, then in the fleet, was killed, and 



Revolutionary Ixciden-ts. 261 

-T 'veral men. Mr. Moore sailing master, was wounded, and 
Ins limb amputated. Mr. CoUingsin, midshipman, had his 
limb amputated, but he died. The Dispatch was so disabled 
that they were obliged to take her in tow, and they brought 
her into Salem, after being out seventeen days. The Dis- 
patch had eight carriage guns, twelve swivels, and a comple- 
ment of forty-one picked men from different ships in the 
fleet. This was the first sea fight. The Tyrannicide was the 
first vessel that was built for the public service, and her com- 
mission was signed by John Hancock. The Dispatch was no 
prize to the crew, excepting a small bounty on her guns. 
-And yet this worthy man in his poverty conies not within 
the letter of the law, and instead of his bounty, must accept 
a hearty recommendation to the generous care of his fellow- 
'citizens. 

Our narrative carries us on to the period when the downfall 
of British authority in the colonies has become a fixed fact 
in history, and the United Thirteen Colonies a firm-rooted 
empire on the face of the New World ! " Sam," as we have 
now perceived, is stretching his huge arm toward the sea. 

A constant alarm was kept up by British cruisers, wliicli 
hovered on the coast of New England, and landed occasionally 
to obtain supplies. Lieutenant Mowatt, who commanded one 
•of these cruisers, chased a vessel from the West Indies into 
Gloucester harbor. The boats sent to take her being repulsed 
by the townspeople, Mowatt fired upon the town, and attempt- 
ed to land. But he was again repulsed, w^th the loss of his 
boats, and thirty-five men taken prisoners. Narraganset 
Bay was much annoyed by a squadron of British cruisers, 
and Bristol was bombarded to frighten the inhabitants into 
furnishing a supply of provisions. Mowatt was presently 
sent to Falmouth, (now Portland,) where, a few months 
before, the loading of a royal mast ship had been obstructetl 
and Mowatt himself arrested and treated with .some rudeness. 
On the refusal of the inhabitants to give up their arms, after 
allowing two hours for the removal of the women and chil- 
dren, a bombardment was commenced, and that rising town 
of five hundred houses was presently in flames. The towns- 
people, not to be so frightened, stood to their arms, and 
■defeated Mowatt's attempt to land. Such outrages did but 
-exasperate feelings already sufficiently inflamed. 



262 ■ H:fiTORicAL and 

It was not long before the colonists tried their hands also- 
at maritime warfare. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut equipped each an armed vessel or two. In Mas- 
sachusetts a law was passed to authorize and encourage the 
fitting out of privateers, and a court was established for the 
trial and condemnation of prizes. Maryland, Virginia, and 
South Carolina each had their navy boards and armed 
vessels, and so did Pennsylvania for the defense of the 
Delaware. Five or six armed vessels, fitted out by Wash- 
ington, cruised to intercept the supplies received at Boston 
by sea. Most of the oflicers of these vessels proved incom- 
petent, and the men mutinous ; but Captain Manly, of the 
schooner Lee, furnished a brilliant exception. In the midst 
of storms he kept the hazai'dous station of Massachusetts 
Bay, and, among other prizes, captured an ordnance brig, 
laden with heavy guns, mortars, and working tools — a most 
acceptable supply to the continental army. 

Under instructions from the Assembly of Rhode Island, 
the delegates of that colony called the attention of the Con- 
tinental Congress to the subject of a navy. A Marine 
Committee was appointed, and four armed vessels were 
ordered to be fitted out at continental expense. All ships of 
war employed in harassing the colonies, and all vessels 
bringing supplies to the British forces, were declared lawful 
prize. Privateering was authorized, and the colonies were 
requested to establish courts for the trial of captures, reserving 
an appeal to Congress. Rules and regulations for the navy 
A\ere adopted; and the Naval Committee were presently 
authorized to fit out thirteen frigates, of from twenty-four to 
thirty-two guns. 

The clergy and the seigneurs of Canada, well satisfied 
with tbe late Quebec Act, were inclined to sustain the British 
authority; but some partisans of the American cause were 
hoped for among the cultivators and citizens, as well as 
among the immigrants since the conquest. The body of 
the Canadian people, notwithstanding a proclamation of 
martial law, paid very little attention to Governor Carleton's 
loud calls upon them to arm for the defense of the province. 
Hinman's Connecticut regiment, stationed at Ticonderoga, 
at the head of which Schuyler placed himself, descended the 
lake in boats, entered the Sorel, and occupied the Isle Aux 



Revolution ABY Incidents. 26b 

Noix. After an unsuccessful attempt on St. John's, where 
was a garrison of five or six hundred British troops, the 
principal regular force in Canada, leaving the command to 
Montgomery, Schuyler returned to the rear to hasten forward 
men and supplies. The equipment of the New York regi- 
ments was greatly delayed by the difficulty of finding arms, 
and Wooster was ordered from Albany, to join Montgomery. 

Meanwhile Ethan Allen, with a small party, principally 
Canadians, was taken prisoner in a wild attempt, without 
orders, to surprise Montreal. Contrary to Carleton's usual 
conduct, Allen experienced very hard usage, being sent in 
irons to England, and treated rather as a leader of banditti 
than as a prisoner of war. 

Joined by Wooster and some Canadians, Montgomery 
renewed the siege of St. John's. By the surprise and cap- 
ture of Chambly, lower down the Sorel, against whicli he 
sent a detachment, he obtained a seasonable supply of ammu- 
nition, which enabled him to press the siege of St. John's 
with vigor. For the relief of that important post, Governor 
Carleton exerted himself to raise the Canadian militia ; but, 
in attempting to cross from the island of Montreal to the 
south bank of the St. Lawrence, he was repulsed by an 
advanced division of Montgomery's army. Another party 
of Canadian militia, from the neighborhood of Quebec, 
advancing up the Sorel, was driven down that river to its 
junction with the St. Lawrence, at which point the Ameri- 
cans established a post and erected batteries. Relief thus cut 
off, the garrison of St. John's presently surrendered as prison- 
ers of war; after which Montgomery pushed forward to 
Montreal, a town at that time of but two or three thousand 
inhabitants, open, and without fortifications. Carleton passed 
down the river in a fast-sailing boat, and escaped to Quebec. 
General Prescott, with the feeble garrison, attempted to 
escape the same way, but was interrupted by the batteries 
at the Sorel, and taken prisoner. 

With the woolens found at Montreal the American general 
was enabled to clothe his troops, of which they stood in great 
need. A regiment of Canadians was organized under Col- 
onel Livingston ; but Montgomery encountered great dis- 
couragements in the lateness of the season and the insubor- 
dination of his soldiers, of whom many, disgusted with the 



264 Historical and 

hardships of the service, deserted and returned home. Still 
he pushed on for Quehec, in expectation of meeting there a 
co-operating force. 

When obliged, to give up the command of Ticonderoga to 
Hinraan, Arnold had behaved with a good deal of insubordi- 
iiation ; had disbanded his men, and returned in disgust to 
the camp before Boston. There, however, he presently 
obtained .employment in an enterprise suggested some time 
before by Brewer, colonel of one of the Massachusetts regi- 
ments. Detached with eleven hundred men, including a 
company of artillery and Morgan's Virginia riflemen, to 
co-operate with the northern army, against Quebec, Arnold 
ascended in boats to the head of the Kennebec, and, guided 
in part by the journal of a British officer who had passed 
over that route some fifteen years before,' struck across the 
wilderness to the head streams of the Chaudiere, down which 
he descended toward the capital of Canada. In crossing these 
uninhabited wilds, the troop suffered severely, and the rear 
division, discouraged and short of provisions, turned about 
and gave over the enterprise. With the other divisions 
Arnold persevered ; and, after a six weeks' struggle, a few 
days before Montgomery entered Montreal, he reached the 
south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec. He was 
kindly received by the Canadian peasantry, and his sudden 
appearance caused the greatest alarm. Quebec had but two 
hundred regular troops ; there was a good deal of discontent 
among the inhabitants. Could Arnold have crossed at once, 
he might, perhaps, in the absence of Carleton, have got pos- 
session of the city. But, on some intimation of his approach, 
the boats had all been removed or destroyed, and some days 
elapsed before he could collect birch-bark canoes in which to 
cross. Meanwhile Carleton made his appearance, having 
escaped down the river from Montreal. He sent all the non- 
combatants out of the city ; organized the traders and others 
into military companies , landed the sailors ; and, with his 
force thus increased to near twelve hundred men, put the 
town into a complete state of defense. Two armed vessels 
were stationed in the river to intercept Arnold; but he 
crossed in the night ; and, ascending the same rugged preci 
pices which Wolfe had climbed before him, drew up his 
forces on the Plains of Abraham. His little army, hardly 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 265 

five hundred and fifty effective men, approaclied the city; 
but the garrison did not come out to meet him ; and, as he 
had no means to undertake a siege, he retired some twenty 
miles up the river to wait for Montgomery, of whose approach 
he had notice. 

Leaving Wooster in command at Montreal, Montgomery 
advanced down the river ; but all his Connecticut troops be- 
came entitled to their discharge on the tenth of December, 
and his ranks were so tliinned by desertions and the detach- 
ments he was obliged to leave behind him, that, when he 
joined Arnold, their united force did not exceed a thousand 
men. They returned, however, to Quebec, and opened bat- 
teries against it ; but their artillery, only a few field pieces, 
was too light to take any effect. The works were extensive ; 
some weak point might perhaps be found ; an assault was 
resolved upon, as the last desperate chance. While a snow- 
storm was waited for, to cover the movement, deserters carried 
into the town information of what was intended. To distract 
ithe enemy's attention, two feints were made against the 
[upper town. It was against two opposite sides of the lower 
Itown that the real attacks were directed; the one led by 
Montgomery, the other by Arnold. Some rockets, thrown 
jup as a signal, being seen by the enemy, they took the alarm 
iand hastened to the ramparts. Montgomery, with the New 
York troops, approached the first barrier, on the south side 
of the lower town. The enemy fled ; not, however, without 
discharging a piece of artillecy, by which Montgomery and 
his two aids were slain. Discouraged by the loss of their 
leader, this division abandoned the attack. Arnold, on his 
side, pushed through the northern suburb, and approached a 
a two-gun battery, the advanced post of the enemy in that 
direction. While cheering on his men, the bone of his leg was 
shattered by a musket ball. He was borne from the field ; but 
Morgan, at the head of his riflemen, made a rush at the battery, 
carried it, and took the guard prisoners. Morgan had no guide ; 
the morning was dark ; totally ignorant of the situation of 
the town, he came to a halt. He was joined by some frag- 
ments of other companies, and, when the day dawned, found 
himself at the head of some two hundred men, who eagerly 
demanded to be led against the second barrier, a few paces 
in front, but concealed from sight by a turn in the street. 
23 



266 Historical and 

Morgan gave the order, and his men advanced and planted 
their ladders ; but those who mounted saw on the other side 
a double hedge of bayonets ready to receive them, while a 
lire, at the same time, was opened by parties of the enemvi 
relieved from duty elsewhere by the failure of the others 
attack, and sent out of the gates to take them in the rear,;' 
Exposed in a narrow street to an incessant fire, Morgan's! 
ranks were soon thinned. His men threw themselves into' 
the store-houses on each side of the street ; but, overpowered > 
by numbers, benumbed with cold, their muskets rendered i 
unserviceable by the snow, they were obliged to surrender, i 
Not less than four hundred men were lost in this unlucky ; 
assault, of whom three hundred became prisoners. Arnold ( 
retired with the remnant of his troops three miles up the i 
river, and, covering his camp with ramparts of frozen snow, 
kept up the blockade of Quebec through the winter. 

While these operations Avere carried on in Canada, the 
term of service of the troops before Boston was rapidly ap-- 
preaching its termination. The time of the Connecticut and 
Ehode Island regiments expired early in December. None; 
of the troops were engaged for a longer period than the first 
of April. 

A committee from Philadelphia had visited the camp, and, 
in consultation with Washington, and with committees from i 
the New England colonies, had agreed upon a plan, presently 
sanctioned by Congress, for the reorganization of the besieg- 
ing army. It was to consist, according to this plan, of 
twenty-six regiments, beside riflemen and artillery : Massa- 
chusetts to furnish sixteen, Connecticut five, New Hampshire 
three, and Rhode Island two — in all, about twenty thousand 
men ; the officers to be selected by Washington, out of those 
already in service, willing and qualified to act. But this was 
a business much easier to plan than to execute. The selection 
of officers was a most delicate and embarrassing matter, in 
which, not qualifications only, but provincial and personal 
prejudices had to be consulted, for not a man would enlist 
till he knew the officers under whom he was to serve. Even 
then, enlistments, though only for a year, were obtained with 
difficulty. The first effervescence of patriotism was over. 
The barracks were cold and comfortless, and the supply of 
fuel scanty. A short experience of military life had damped 



Revolutionary Inciden'ts. 267" 

the ardor of many. All the new recruits required a furlough 
to visit their families. Those who did not re-enlist refused 
to serve a moment beyond their time. One or two of the 
Connecticut regiments marched off some days beforehand. 
The camp was in danger of being left bare, and, to supply 
the deficiency in the Continental regiments, five thousand 
militia had to be called in, who answered much better than 
Washington had feared. ' 

Surrounded with difficulties, the commander-in-chief exhi- 
bited a fortitude, assiduity, discrimination, and patience abso- 
lutely essential for the station which he held, and amply 
vindicating the judgment of Congress. In his private cor- 
respondence he could not wholly suppress his feelings. He 
complained bitterly of " an egregious want of public spirit," 
and of " fertility in all the low arts of obtaining advantage." 

Here is one precious example which we have to offer, of 
the metal and character of the foe with whom " Sam " in 
these early times was compelled, against his will, to contend, 
in the first agonies of separation from the Primal Stock. We 
have other instances of the sort in reservation. 

Parliament promptly voted twenty-five thousand men to 
be employed in America. As it was difficult to obtain enlist- 
ments in Great Britain, Hanoverian troops were hired tO' 
garrison the fortresses in the Mediterranean, in order to set 
free an equivalent number of British soldiers, for service in 
America. This employment of foreign mercenaries was very 
much stigmatized by the Opposition ; but the same policy was 
presently carried much further. In the course of the session, 
treaties were laid before Parliament, by which the Duke of 
Brunswick, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel agreed to- 
hire out seventeen thousand of their subjects to serve as 
mercenaries in America. The employment of German troops 
had been suggested by Lord Howe, who expressed, in his 
correspondence with the ministry, a great dislike of Irish 
Catholic soldiers, as not at all to be depended on. These 
treaties, after violent debates, were sanctioned by Parlia- 
ment, and the necessary funds were voted. The forces to be 
employed in America were thus raised to upward of forty 
thousand men. 

General Howe, who had now replaced Gage in the com- 
mand of the British army, was well satisfied that Boston was 



266 Historical and 

not a point from which military operations could be advan- 
tageously carried on, and, but for the deficiency of shipping, j 
would have evacuated that place before the setting in of t 
winter. Abundant supplies were sent from England at very j 
great expense, but many ships were wrecked, and others f 
were captured ; and the British troops felt the want, during , 
the winter, of fuel and fresh provisions. Fuel was supplied 
Tjy pulling down houses. To diminish the consumption of 
provisions, numbers of the poorer people were sent out of the 
town. The troops on Bunker Hill remained under canvas 
the whole winter, and suffered severely from the cold. The 
British officers amused themselves as they could. They 
got up balls and a theater. The Old South, the largest 
meeting-house in the town, was turned into a riding-, 
school. 

Lord Dunmore, after his departure from Williamsburg, 
being joined by several British armed vessels in the Chesa- 
peake, began to threaten Lower Virginia. The settlers west 
of the Laurel Kidge had met at Pittsburg, had agreed ta 
support the American Association, and had chosen delegates 
to the Virginia Convention. Dunmore, however, not without 
hopes of making some impression in that quarter, gave to 
Conolly, formerly his agent in that region, a lieutenant- 
colonel's commission, and sent him to visit Gage at Boston. 
After his return, Conolly proceeded up the Chesapeake, 
landed near its head, and set off with several companions on 
his way across the mountains, in hopes, by his personal influ- 
ence with the western settlers, to raise a regiment, and, in 
conjunction with some regulars from Detroit, to operate 
against the back part of Virginia. It was even said to be a 
part of his plan to stimulate the Indians to hostilities. But 
the whole scheme was cut short by ConoUy's arrest at Fred- 
ericton, in Maryland, whence he and his companions were 
sent prisonei's to Philadelphia. 

Meanwhile Dunmore landed at Norfolk, and seized and 
carried off a printing-press, on which he printed a proclama- 
tion, which he dispersed abroad, declaring martial law, calling 
upon all persons able to bear arms, to join him, and offering 
freedom to all slaves and indented servants of rebels, who 
would enlist under his banner. We furnish a copy of this 
infamous Proclamation : — - 



Revolutionary Inciden'ts. 269 

Since the lOfcli of May last I have not received a single 
.ine from any one in administration, though I have written 
H'olumes to them, in each of which 1 have prayed to be 
iistructed, hut to no purpose. I am therefore determined to 
,Vo on, doing the best of my power for his Majesty's service, 
[have accordingly ordered a regiment, called the Queen's 
pwn royal regiment, of five hundred men, to be raised immedi- 
ately, consisting of a lieutenant-colonel, commandant, a major, 
and ten companies, each of which is to consist of one captain, 
|two lieutenants, one ensign, and fifty privates, with non- 
commissioned officers in proportion. You may observe by 
my proclamation, that I offer freedom to the blacks of all rebels, 
that join me, in consequence of which there are between two 
and three hundred already come in, and those I form into 
a corps, as fast as they come in, giving them white officers 
and non-commissioners in proportion — and from these two 
plans, I make no doubt of getting men enough to reduce this 
colony to a proper sense of their duty. My next distress will 
be the want of arms, accoutrements and money, all of which 
you may be able to relieve me fi-om. The latter I am sure 
you can, as there are many merchants here who are ready to 
supply me, on my giving them bills on you, which you will 
have to withdraw, and give your own in their room. I hope 
jthis mode will be agreeable to you; it is the same that 
General Gage proposed. 

Having drawn together a considerable force, Dunmore 
ascended Elizabeth river to the Great Bridge, the only pass 
by which Norfolk can be approached from the land side ; dis- 
jpersed some North Carolina militia collected there; made 
several prisoners; and then, descending the river, took pos- 
session of Norfolk. The rise of that town had been very 
rapid. Within a short time past it had become the principal 
shipping port of Virginia. Its population amounted to several 
thousands, among whom were many Scotch traders, not well 
disposed to the American cause. 

Fugitive slaves and others began now to flock to Dun 
more's standard. A movement was now made in his favor 
on the east shore of Maryland, which it required a thousand 
militia to suppress. The Convention of Virginia, not a little 
alarmed, voted four additional regiments, afterward increased 
23* 



270 Historical and 

to seven, all of which were presently taken into continental 
pay. Among the colonels of the new regiments, were Mer- 
cer, Stephen, and Muhlenberg, the latter a clergyman, who 
laid aside the surplice to put on a uniform. The Committee 
of Safety were authorized to imprison all persons guilty of 
taking up arms against the colony, and to appropriate the 
produce of their estates to the public service. Woodford, 
with the second Virginia regiment, took possession of the 
causeway leading to the Great Bridge, which was still held 
by Dunmore's troops. An attempt to dislodge the Virginians 
having failed, with loss, Dunmore abandoned the bridge and 
the town, and again embarked. Norfolk was immediately 
occupied by Woodford, who was promptly joined by Howe's 
regiment from North Carolina. 

After a descent on the eastern shore of Virginia, to whose 
aid marched two companies of Maryland minute men, 
being reinforced by the arrival of a British frigate, Dunmore 
bombarded Norfolk. A party landed and set it on fire. The 
town was mostly built of wood, and that part of it nearest 
the water was rapidly consumed. The part which escaped, 
was presently burned by the provincials, to prevent it from 
becoming a shelter to the enemy. Thus perished, a prey to 
civil war, the largest and richest of the rising towns of Vir- 
ginia. Dunmore continued, during the whole summer, a 
predatory warfare along the rivers, of which his naval supe- 
riority gave him the command, burning houses and plunder- 
ing plantations, from which he carried off upward of a 
thousand slaves. He was constantly changing his place to 
elude attack ; but watched, pursued, and harassed, he finally 
found it necessary to retire to St. Augustine with his adher- 
ents and his plunder. (1776.) 

The draft of a Declaration, prepared by Jefferson, ?md 
reported by the Committee, was then taken up. Not to 
offend the friends of America in Groat Britain, it was agreed 
to strike out several paragraphs especially severe upon the 
British government. An emphatic denunciation of the 
slave trade, and a charge against the king, of having pros- 
tituted his negative for the defeat of all legislative attempts 
to prohibit or restrain " that execrable traffic," was also 



j Eevolutionary Incidents. 271 

mitted. It would liave been going too far to ask Georgia 
3 vote for that clause. Thus amended, the Declaration was 
dopted, and signed by most of the members present. 
' The new Provincial Congress of New York, which met a 
.nv days after, at White Plains, with authority to form a 
;overnment, gave their sanction to the Declaration, which 
hus became the unanimous act of the Thirteen United 
States. It was presently ordered to be engrossed on pareh- 
lent, and was subsequently signed by all the delegates then 
resent, including several who were not members at the time 
f its adoption. ' 

The proclamation of Independence was signalized at New 
Tork, by destroying a picture of the king, which had 
ecorated the City Hall. The king's leaden statue, which 
tood in the Bowling Green, was also thrown down and run 
ato bullets. This feeling of exultation was, however, far 
rom unanimous. A large number of the wealthier citizens 
wked on with distrust ; and the Episcopal clergy showed 
heir dissatisfaction by shutting up the churches. 

Meanwhile, by reinforcements from Europe, including a 
art of the German mercenaries, to whom were added the 
Drees lately employed against Charleston, and some regi- 
lents from Florida and the West Indies, Howe's army, 
ncamped on Staten Island, was raised to twenty-four thou- 
and men. 

The obstructions placed by General Putnam, with vast 
ibor and expense, in the Hudson and East Eivers, were not 
Dund to answer the purpose intended. In spite of the artil- 
.^ry of Forts Washington and Lee, several British vessels 
scended the Hudson. An attempt was made to burn them 
dth fire ships ; but, having reconnoitered and taken sound- 
tigs, they descended again without material injury. 

It was, however, by way of Long Island, that Howe pro- 
oscd to approach the city. Washington had expected as 
luicli; and a corps of the American army, nine thousand 
trong, lay at Brooklyn, opposite New York, behind intrench- 
iionts thrown up under the direction of Greene. Between 
bis camp and the bay at the southwest corner of Long 
siand, where the British army presently landed, there 
tretched a range of thickly-wooded hills, crossed by two 
oads ; a third road followed the shore round the western 



272 Historical and 

base of these hills ; a fourth, penetrating inland, turned 
them on the east. Intrenchments had been thrown up to 
guard the passes over these hills and around their Avestern 
base, and troops had been detailed for that service. A severe 
attack of sickness had obliged Greene to give up the com- 
mand; Putnam, from his recent transfer to it, was yet 
imperfectly acquainted with the situation of the works and 
passes in front of the camp ; and in the confusion and want 
of discipline which prevailed, the orders to watch and guard 
those passes were imperfectly obeyed. 

Two British columns advancing by night, one by the shore 
road and the other over the hills, captured or evaded the } 
patrols, forced the defiles without difficulty, and early the 
next morning came in contact with two American corps, one 
under Sterling, sent forward by Putnam, on news of the 
approach of the British, to guard the shore road, the other 
under Sullivan, who advanced hastily, with such troops as he 
could collect, to prevent the passage over the hills. Mean- 
while, a third British column, led by Clinton, proceeded along 
the eastern road, which had been left unguarded, turned the 
hills, and pushed in between Sullivan's corps and the Ameri- 
can camp. Driven backward and forward between a double 
fire, a few of that corps took advantage of the broken and 
wooded ground to escape ; but the greater part were taken 
prisoners, and Sullivan along with them. 

The corps under Sterling made a steady resistance to the 
troops in their front, and when Clinton threatened to gain, 
their rear, by great exertions they got back to the camp, 
not, however, without losing their commander, who was taken 
prisoner while covering the retreat. For this important vic- 
tory, in which he lost less than four hundred men, Howe was 
rewarded by the Order of the Bath. The American loss was 
never very accurately ascertained ; but, beside several hun- 
dreds killed or missing, about a thousand remained prisoners 
in the hands of the enemy. Some five thousand men had 
been engaged in the battle, principally from New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Smallwood's Mary- 
land regiment, forming a part of Sterling's division, behaved 
with great gallantry, and suffered very severely. 

The victorious forces, fifteen thousand strong, encamped 
directly in front of the American lines, which a vigorous 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 273 

assault might probably have carried. But, with the caution 
fashionable at that clay in military operations, and not dimin- 
ished by the experiment at Bunker Hill, preparations were 
made for regular approaches. The camp at Brooklyn had 
been re-enforced ; but Washington would not risk the loss of 
so considerable a part of his army ; and, after holding a 
council of war, he determined to withdraw the troops. The 
command of the boats was given to Colonel Glover, of 
Massachusetts, and they were manned with the men of his 
regiment, mostly fishermen of Marblehead. M'Dougall, who 
was not without some experience in marine affairs, superin- 
tended the embarkation, and, in the course of the night, 
favored by a thick fog, a masterly retreat was effected across 
the East Kiver. As a consequence of this movement, the 
whole of Long Island fell into the hands of the British. 
WoodhuU, late president of the Provincial Congress, employed 
on Long Island, with a small body of militia, in driving off 
cattle, was surprised the day after the battle by a party of 
light horse, under Oliver Delancey, wounded after his cap- 
ture, and treated with such cruel neglect that his wounds 
mortified, and he died in consequence. The Long Island 
Tories, who had experienced considerable harshess, had now 
an opportunity to retort on their opponents. 

Washington left a considerable force in the city, but his 
main body was encamped on Harlem Hights, very strong 
ground toward the northern end of York Island. That all 
things might be ready for instant retreat, the surplus stores 
and baggage were sent across Harlem River, on the east side 
of which, at Morrisania, Washington's head quarters were 
established. 

It was very desirable, at this moment, to obtain correct 
information of the force and position of the British troops at 
Brooklyn ; and, at Washington's desire, and the request of 
Colonel Knowlton, Nathan Hale, a captain in one of the 
Connecticut regiments, a young man of education and en- 
thusiasm, volunteered on that hazardous service. He crossed 
to Brooklyn, obtained the necessary information, and was 
about to return, when he was arrested on some suspicion, and 
being betrayed by his embarrassment, was carried before 
General Howe, tried and convicted as a spy, and hanged the 
next morning. (1776.) 



271 Historical and 

Washington's army, by this time, was greatly reduced. 
The term of service of the militia was fast expiring. The 
whole flying camp soon claimed their discharge ; and no in- 
ducements could procure a moment's delay. Some of the 
New York militia refused to do duty. Howe, they said, 
offered " peace, liberty, and safety" — so they understood his 
proclamation — and what more could they ask? The Con- 
tinentals were enlisted only for a year, and their term of 
service was fast drawing to a close ; nor did they always wait 
to complete it, desertions being very numerous. Exclusive 
of Heath's division in the Highlands, and the corps under 
Lee, on the east side of the Hudson, Washington's army did 
exceed four thousand men. The ground which he occupied 
was a level plain between the Hackensack and the Passaic; 
the army hud no intrenching tools ; and a British Column, 
led by Cornwallis, was rapidly approaching. 

Obliged to retreat, but anxious not to be cut off from 
Philadelphia, Washington crossed the Passaic to Nowlark, his 
troops exposed to all the severity of approaching winter, 
without tents, badly supplied with blankets, and very imper- 
fectly clad. The British, well furnished with every neces- 
sary, pressed upon him with a much su])erior force ; and 
Washino^ton ao^ain retired, first across the Raritan to Bruns- 
wick, and thence to Princeton, where a corps was left, under 
Stirling, to check the enemy's advance, while Washington 
continued his retreat to Trenton, where he transported his 
remaining stores and baggage across the Delaware. 

The new^ of AVashington's retreat produced the greatest 
commotion in Philadelphia ; fears on one side, and hopes on 
the other. Putnam had been sent to take the command in 
that city. Mifflin was also there, endeavoring to raise the 
spirits of the people. Some fifteen hundred city militia, sent 
forward through the active agency of Mifflin, joined Wash- 
ington at Trenton, and he advanced again upon Princeton. 
But Cornwallis approached with a superior fore, and the 
American army was obliged to cross the Delaware. As the 
r.^ar guard left the Jersey shore, the advance of the British 
mme in sight ; indeed, during the whole course of the re 
treat, the American rear guard, employed in pulling up 
I ndges, was constantly within sight and shot of the Britisli 
p^mcers s^nt forward to rebuild them. Wasliington had 



Revolutionary Incidents. 275 



secured all the boats on the Delaware, and ho placed his forces 
so as to guard the principal fords. The enemy, finding no 
means to cross; occupied the eastern bank, above and below 
Trenton. 

A body of fifteen hundred Hessians, stationed at Trenton, 
was selected by Washington as the object of attack. On 
the evening of Christmas, with two thousand five hundred 
men and six pieces of artillery, including the New York 
company under Alexander Hamilton, he commenced crossing 
the Delaware about nine miles above Trenton. Two corps 
of militia, one opposite Trenton, the other lower down, at 
Bristol, under General Cadwallader, were to have crossed at 
the same time ; but the quantity of floating ice made the 
passage impossible. It was only with great difficulty, and 
after struggling all night, that Washington's troops got over 
at last. About four o'clock in the morning, in the midst of 
a snow-storm, they commenced their march for Trenton, in 
two columns, one led by Greene, the other by Sullivan, 
Stark's New Hampshire regiment heading Sullivan's advance. 
The two columns took diffei'ent roads — Sullivan alona: the 
bank of the river, the other some distance inland. It was 
eight o'clock before they reached the town ; but the Hessians, 
sleepy with the night's debauch, were completely surprised. 
Some little resistance was made by the guard of the artil- 
lery, but they were soon overpowered, and the pieces taken. 
Washington's artillery was planted to sweep the streets of 
the town. The Hessian commander, while attempting to 
form his troops, was mortally wounded. The light horse and 
a portion of the infantry, who fled on the first alarm, escaped 
to Bordentown. The main body attempted to retreat by the 
Princeton road, but found it already occupied by Colonel 
Hand and his regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen. Thus cut 
off, ignorant of the force opposed to them, and without enthu- 
siasm for the cause, they threw down their arms and surren- 
dered. About a thousand prisoners were taken, and six 
cannon. The Americans had two frozen to death, two killed, 
and a few wountled in assaulting the artillery, among tliem 
.James Monroe, tlien a lieutenant, afterward President of tlio 
United States. Had the milita, lower down, been able to 
«ros3 the success mi<"at have been still more comnlete. 



276 Historical and 

Washington re-crossed tlie Delaware with his prisoners^ 
who were sent to Philadelphia, and paraded through the 
streets in a sort of triumph. The British, astonished at such*. 
a stroke from an enemy whom they reckoned already sub- 
dued, broke up their encampments along the Delaware, and 
retired to Princeton. Washington thereupon re-occupied. 
Trenton, where he was speedily joined by three thousand six 
hundred Pennsylvania militia, relieved, by the withdrawal of ' 
the enemy, from their late duty of guarding the Delaware. 
At this moment the term of service of the New England; 
regiments expired ; but the persuasions of their officers, and-- 
a bounty of ten dollars, induced them to remain for six. 
weeks longer. 

Alarmed by the surprise at Trenton, and the signs of new 
activity in the American army, Howe detained Cornwallis, 
then just on the point of embarking for England, and sent 
him to take the command at Princeton. Re-enforcements 
now came up from Brunswick, and Cornwallis advanced in 
force upon Trenton. Washington occupied the high ground 
on the eastern bank of a small river which enters the Dela- 
ware at that town. The bridge and the ford above it were 
guarded by artillery. After a sharp cannonade, the British 
kindled their fires and encamped for the night. (1777.) 

Washington was now in a dangerous predicament. He 
had about five thousand men, half of them militia, but a few 
days in camp. Could such an army stand the attack of Brit- 
ish regulars, equal in numbers, and far superior in discipline 
and equipments'? To attempt to cross the Delaware in the 
face of the enemy would be more hazardous than a battle.. 
Washington, according to his custom, called a council of war. 
The large force which Cornwallis evidently had with him led 
to the inference that the corps in the rear could not be very 
strong. The bold plan was adopted of gaining that rear, 
beating up the enemy's quarters at Princeton, and, if fortune 
favored, falling on his stores and Isaggage at Brunswick. In 
execution of this plan, the American baggage was silently 
sent off down the river to Burlington ; and, after replenishing 
the camp fires, and leaving small parties to throw up intrench- 
ments within hearing of the enemy's sentinels, the army 
marched off about midnight, by a circuitous route toward- 



Eevolution-ary IncidenTvS. 277 

Triuceton. Three British regiments had spent the night in 
that town ; and by sunrise, when the Americans entered it, 
two of them were already on their march for Trenton, The 
leading regiment was attacked and broken ; but it presently 
rallied, regained the Trenton road, and continued its march 
to join Lord Cornwallis. General Mercer, who had led this 
attack with a column of militia, was not very well supported ; 
he fell mortally wounded while attempting to bring his men 
up to the charge, and was taken prisoner. The marching 
regiment in the rear, after a sharp action, gave way and fled 
•toward Brunswick. The regiment in the town occupied the 
fCoUege, and made some show of resistance ; but some pieces 
-of artillery being brought to bear upon them, they soOn sur- 
rendered. Three hundred prisoners fell into the hands of 
i "tlie Americans, besides a severe loss to the enemy in killed 
^nd wounded. The American loss was about a hundred, 
including several valuable oflicers. 

When Cornwallis heard the roar of the cannon at Prince- 
ton, he penetrated at once the whole of Washington's plan. 
Alarmed for his magazines at Brunswick, he hastily put his 
"troops in motion, and by the time the Americans were ready 
•to leave Princeton, he was again close upon them. Again 
Washington was in great danger. His troops were exhausted ; 
.all had been one night without sleep, and some of them 
longer ; many had no blankets ; others were barefoot ; all were 
'very thinly clad. It was necessary to give over the attack 
upon Brunswick, and to occupy some more defensible ground, 
where the troops could be put under cover. At Morristown, 
on the American right, were the skeletons of three regi- 
ments, detached, as already mentioned, from the northern 
.army ; also the troops sent forward by Heath, but stopped 
on the reception of Washington's countermand. Some mili- 
-tia had also joined them. The high ground in that vicinity 
offered many strong positions. As Cornwallis would hardly 
venture tc> cross the Delaware with an enemy in his rear, 
Washington concluded to march for Morristown, where he 
intrenched himself. 

Not anxious to continue this winter campaign, Cornwallis 
retired to New Brunswick. The parties sent out by Wash- 
ington to assail and harass the British quarters, were eagerly 
joined bv the inhabitants, incensed by the plunder and ravage 
24 



278 HiSTOEIOAL AND 

of the Britisli and Hessians, against whom, even HoweV 
protections had proved a very uncertain defense. Plunder- 
ing, into which sokliers very easily fall, was hy no means, 
confined to the British. Washington was again obliged to 
issue stern orders against "the infamous practice of plunder- - 
ing the inhabitants, under pretense that they are Tories." 

Another proclamation was presently issued, requiring all. 
those who had taken British protections, either to remove 
within the enemy's lines, or else to repair to the nearest^ 
general officer, give up their protections, and take an oath 
of allegiaiice to the United States. Objections were made 
to this proclamation, and one of the New Jersey delegates 
in Congress, raised some question about it, on the ground 
that it was an interference with State rights, allegiance 
being due to the State, and not to the confederacy ; but 
Congress sustained Washington in the course he had taken.. 

Huts were erected at Morristown, and tlierc the main body 
of the American army remained during the winter. The • 
right was at Princeton, under Putnam ; the left in tlie High- 
lands, under Heath ; cantonments were established at vari- 
ous places along this extended line. Skirmishes occasionally 
took place between advanced parties, but for six months, nO' 
important movement was made upon either side. AVashing- 
ton, busy in organizing the new army, was, in fact, very 
weak. Eecruits came in but slowly; and detacliments of 
militia, principally from the eastern States, had to be called 
out for temporary service. These were judiciously posted, 
so as to make the best possible show ; but, for several 
months, there was little more than the shadow of an army. 
The enemy, made cautious by their losses, fortunately were 
ignorant of Washington's real situation. The strong ground 
occupied by the Americans, and the winter, which had now 
fairly set in, seemed to forbid the hope of successful attack. 
In skirmishes, the Americans were generally successful ; the 
British quarters were straitened, their supplies Were cut off, 
and they were reduced to great distress for forage and fresh 
provisions. 

The recovery of the Jerseys by the fragments of a 
defeated army, which had seemed just before on the point 
of dissolution, gained Washington a high reputation, not at 
home only, but in Europe also, where the progress of the 



Eevolutioxary Incid.':nts, 279 

campaign had been watched with great interest,, and where 
the disastrous loss of New York, and the retreat through the 
Jerseys, had given a general impression that the Americans 
would not be able to maintain their Independence. The 
recovery of the Jerseys produced a reaction. The American 
general was extolled as a Fabius, whoso prudence availed his 
country not less than his valor. At home, also, these suc- 
cesses had the best effect. The recruiting service, which 
before had been almost at a stand, began now to revive, and 
considerable progress Avas presently made in organizing the 
new army. 

The extensive powers which Congress had intrusted to 
Washington, were exercised energetically indeed, but with 
the greatest circumspection, and a single eye to the public 
good. The State appointments of officers for the new army, 
too often the result of favoritism, were rectified, so far as 
prudence would justify; and, by commissions in the sixteen 
additional battalions, Washington was enabled to provide for 
such meritorious officers as had been overlooked in the new 
appointments. 

We give here a history of cotemporary events, by a cotem- 
porary, which conveys to us much of the realities of this 
period of trial, which nothing of the diction of the Eclectic 
historians of the events which now followed in such rapid 
succession, will ever be able to impress upon the genuine 
children of " Sam." It is a tedious history, compressed in a 
few paragraphs, by one of those truly patriotic souls, which 
were fired by the imminence of the events which they wit- 
nessed. 

THE POLITICAL PART OF THE CHARGE OF HIS HONOR, CHIEF JUS- 
TICE WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

At a Court of General Sessions of the Peace, Oyer 
AND Terminer, Assize, and General Goal Delivery, begun 
and holden at Charleston, for the district of Charleston, 
the 21s^ October, 1777, before the Hon. William Henry 
Drayton, Esq., chief justice, and his Associates, justices of 
said court. 

Human policy at best is but short-sighted ; nor is it to be 
wondered at, that the orig-inal formation of the continental 



280 HlSTOEICAL AND 

army was upon an erroneous principle. The people of America 
are a people of property ; almost every man is a freeholder. 
Their superior rulers thought such men, living at ease on 
their farms, would not become soldiers, under long enlist- 
ments ; nor, as all that was then aimed at was redress of 
grievances, did they think there would be occasion for their 
military services, but for a few months. Hence the conti- 
nental army was formed upon short enlistments — a policy 
that unexpectedly dragged America back to the door of 
slavery. As the time of enlistments expired the last year, 
the American army decreased in power, till it possessed scarce 
anything but its appellation. And Washington, a name 
which needs no title to adorn it, a freeman above all praise, 
having evacuated Long Island and New York to a far supe- 
rior force, having repeatedly baffled the enemy at the White 
Plains, they, quitting that scene of action, suddenly took Fort 
Washington (Nov. 16), and bending their course to Phila- 
delphia, he, with but a handful of men, boldly threw himself 
in their front, and opposed their progress. With a chosen 
body of veterans, who have no near prospect of discharge, it 
is a difficult operation to make an orderly, leisurely, and 
effectual retreat before a superior enemy ; but with Wash- 
ington's little army, not exceeding four thousand men, raw 
troops, who had but a few weeks to serve, to make such a 
retreat, for eighty miles, and through a populous country, 
without being joined by a single neighbor — a most discour- 
aging circumstance — nothing in the whole science of war 
could be more difficult ; yet it was most completely performed. 
Washington caused the Delaware to bound the enemy's 
advance. He summoned General Lee with the corps under 
his command, to join him. That veteran, disobeying his 
repeated orders, for which I presume rigid inquisition is yet 
to be made, loitering where he should have bounded forward, 
allowed himself to be surprised and made a prisoner 
(Dec. 13), at a distance from his troops. Washington in 
the abyss of distress, seemed to be abandoned by the officer 
next in command — by the Americans themselves, who seemed 
appalled by the rapid progress of the enemy. Kape and 
massacre, ruin and devastation indiscriminately overwhelmed 
whigs and tories, and marked the advance of the British 
forces. The enemy being but a day's march from Philadelphia, 



Revolutionary Incidents. 281 

the Quakers of that city, by a public instrument, dated the 
20th of December, declared their attachment to the British 
domination — a general defection was feared — the Congress 
removed to Baltimore — American liberty evidently appeared 
as in the last convulsion ! 

Washington was now at the head of about two thousand 
five hundred men ; their time of service was to expire in a 
few days, nor was there any prospect that they could be 
induced to stay longer. This, such as it was, appeared the 
only force that could be opposed to the British, which seemed 
to halt only to give time to the American vigor to dissolve 
of itself, and display us to the world as an inconstant people, 
noisy, void of public virtue, and even shame. But it was in. 
this extremity of affairs, when no human resource appeared 
in their favor, that the Almighty chose to manifest his power, 
to show the Americans that he had not forsaken them • and 
to convince the States that it was by him alone they were to 
be maintained in their Independence, if they deserved to pos- 
sess it. 

Like Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest men who 
ever lived, Washington, laying aside the generalissimo, 
assumed the partisan. He had but a choice of difficulties. 
He was even in a more desperate situation than that in 
which the king of Prussia was before the Ijattle of Torgau ; 
when there was no step which rashness dictated, but prudence 
-advised him to attempt. The enemy was now in full posses- 
sion of the Jerseys. A principal body of them were posted 
at Trenton, on the Delaware. Washington occupied the 
opposite bank. His army, our only apparent hope, now 
somewhat short of two thousand five hundred men, was to be 
disbanded in a very few days ; he resolved to lead it to battle 
before that fatal period, and at least afford it an opportunity 
of separating with honor. He prepared to attack the enemy 
at the dawn of day, on the 26th of December. The weather 
was severe. The ice on the river prevented the passage of 
a part even of his small force. But with those (one thousand 
five hundred men) that he transported across the river, through 
a violent storm of snow and hail, he marched against the 
-enemy. The unavoidable difficulties in passing the river, 
delayed his arrival at their advanced posts, till eight in the 
morning. The conflict was short. About thirty of the British. 
' 24* 



282 Historical and 

troops were killed. Six hundred fled. Nine hundred and 
nine officers and privates surrendered themselves prisoners^ 
with six pieces of brass artillery, and four pair of colors. 

This brilliant success was obtained at a very small price- 
only two officers and one or two privates wounded. In a 
word, the victory in effioct re-established the American affairs. 
The consent of the victors to continue six weeks longer under 
their leader, and the elevation of the spirits of the people, 
were its immediate consequences — most important acquisitions 
at that crisis. The enemy roused from their inactivity, and 
with the view of allowing Washington as little time as pos- 
sible to reap otlier advantages, they, in a hurry, collected 
in force and marched against liim. He was posted ftt Tren- 
ton. On the second of January, in the afternoon, the front 
appeared ; they halted, with design to make an attack in the 
morning, and in the meantime a cannonade was begun, and 
continued by both parties till dark. Sanpinck creek, which 
runs through Trenton, parted the two armies. Our foi'ces 
occupied the soutli bank, and at night fires were liglited on 
both sides. At twelve, Washington having renewed his fires, 
and leaving guards on the passages over the creek, and about 
five hundred men to amuse the enemy, with the remainder 
of his army, about one in the morning, marched to Prince- 
ton to cut off a» re-inforcement that was advancing. He 
arrived at his destination by sunrise, and dislodged them ; 
they left upward of one hundred men dead on the spot, and 
near three hundred more as prisoners to tlie victors. 

It was by such decisive conduct that the King^of Prussia 
avoided being overwhelmed by a combined attack upon his 
camp at Lignitz, on the morning of the 15th of August, 
1760, by three armies led by Dann, Londohn, and Czer- 
nicheue, who were advancing against him from different 
quarters. In the night the king marched, and in the morn- 
ing, by the time Dann arrived at his empty camp, he had 
defeated Londohn in his advance. So the Roman consul, C. 
Claudius Nero, dreading the junction of Hannibal and his 
brother Asdrubal, who was in full march to him with a 
powerful re-inforcement, left his camp before Hannibal, with 
such an appearance as to persuade him he was present, and 
with the nerves and sinews of his army privately quitting it, 
he rapidly marched almost the whole length of Italy, while 



Revolution .VKY Txotpkxt.^. 283 

Home trembled at liis steps, and, joining the other consul, he 
defeated Asdrubal, who, had he with his forces joined his 
brother, liad made them in all probability an over match for 
the Human. Thus equal geniuses prove their equality by 
wisely adapting their conduct to their circumstances. 

The action at Trenton was as the making of the flood. 
From til at period success rolled in upon us with a spring 
tide. That victory gave us an army ; the affair of Princeton 
procured us a force and the re-possession of all the Jerseys 
but Brunswick and Amboy — for the enemy, astonished at 
Wasnington's vivacity, dreaded the loss of those posts, in 
which they had deposited their stores, and ran back to hide 
themselves behind the works they had thrown up around 
them, Washington pursued, and by the fifth of January 
those forces which, but a few days before, were in full posses- 
sion of the Jerseys, he had closely confined to the environs 
of Brunswick and Amboy. In this situation both armies 
continued until the 13th of June last, when General Howe 
made an attempt to proceed to Philadelphia; but, being 
baffled, he suddenly abandoned Brunswick, (June 22d,) and 
in a day or two after, Amboy, and retired to Staten Island. 

In the meantime General Burgoyne was advancing from 
Canada against Ticonderoga. He appeared before the place 
on the 28th of June — a day glorious to Mis country — and 
General St. Clair, who commanded in that important post, 
without waiting till the enemy had completed their works, 
or given an assault, to sustain which, without doubt, he had 
been sent there, suddenly abandoned the fortress and its 
stores to the enemy, (July 6th.) The public have loudly 
condemned this evacuation, and the Congress have ordered 
strict inquiry to be made into the cause of it. 

General Burgoyne having thus easily possessed himself 
of Ticonderoga, immediately began to measure the distance 
to New York. But being destitute of horses for his dragoons, 
wagons for the conveyance of his baggage, and in urgent 
want of provisious, he halted near Saratoga, to give time for 
the operation of the proclamation he had issued (June 23d) 
to assure the inhabitants of security, and to induce them to 
continue at home with their effects. But, regardless of public 
engagements, (August 9th,) he suddenly detached lieutenant 



■284 Historical and 

colonel Baum with fifteen hundred men, and private instruc- 
tions to strip the people of their horses, wagons, and provi- 
sions ; and gave " stretch " to his Indians to scalp those 
whom he had exhorted to " remain quietly at their 
HOUSES V 

Things now wore a dreadful aspect in that part of America, 
hut General Stark soon changed the countenance of aflFairs. 
With a body of two thousand men, principally militia, he 
attacked (August 16th) Lieutenant Colonel Baum, at Ben- 
nington, stormed his works, killed about' two hundred of his 
men, took six hundred and fifty-six prisoners, together with 
four brass field pieces and a considerable quantity of baggage, 
losing only about thirty men killed and fifty wounded. This 
-successful attack at once rescued the country from massacre 
a.nd ruin, and deprived General Burgoyne of those supplies 
which alone could enable him to advance ; nor was it less 
important in respect to the time at which it was made. For 
-at this juncture, Fort Stanwix was hard pressed by General 
St. Ledger, who, having advanced from Lake Ontario, had 
laid sies-e to it on the 2d of Auo-ust, General Arnold had 
been preparing to march to its relief, and he had now full 
liberty to continue his route. His near approach compelled 
the enemy with precipitation to raise the siege, (August 22,) 
leaving their tents, and a large part of their ammunition, 
stores, provisions and baggage, nor did he lose any time in 
setting out in pursuit of them. 

Such unexpected strokes utterly discouragetl General Bur- 
goyne. Our militia began to assemble in considerable 
numbers. He now anxiously cast his eyes behind to Ticon- 
deroga, and wished to trace back his stops ; but, while 
General Gates was advancing against his front, at Stillwater, 
with considerable force, the front of Bennington and Stanwix, 
3, part of the American troops had occupied posts in his rear, 
and even penetrated to Ticonderoga. In their advance they 
took two hundred batteaux and two hundred and ninety-three 
prisoners ; and having seized the old French lines near that 
fortress, on the 18th of September they summoned the place 
to surrender. Later advices, which, though not indisputable, 
yet well authenticated, say General Burgoyne is totally 
■defeated and taken prisoner, and that Ticonderoga, with all 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 285 

its stores, is in our possession. Indeed, from the events we 
already know, we have every reason to believe that the Ameri- 
can arms are decisively triumphant in that quarter. 

As to General Howe, at the head of the grand British 
army, even when the campaign was far advanced, he had 
not done anything in aid of his master's promise, in June- 
last, to his Parliament, that his forces would " effectually 
crush " America in the course of " the present campaign." 
Driven from the Jerseys, and having embarked his troops, on 
the 23tl of July, he put to sea from Sandy Hook, with two- 
hundred and twenty-six sail, and having entered the Chesa- 
peake, he landed his army (about twelve thousand strong) 
the 30th of August, on Turkey Point, at the head of the- 
bay. Skirmishing with the American light troops, he pushed 
on to Brandywine Creek, behind which Washington was 
posted to obstruct his passage. By a double onset, on the 
11th of September, at Chad's Ford and Jones', six miles- 
above, when, because of uncertain and contradictory intelli- 
gence, Washington had not made a disposition, adequate ta 
the force with which the enemy attacked, they crossed, first 
at Jones' and then at Chad's. The eno-ao-ement was lone: 
and obstinate. The highest account does not make our 
whole loss exceed one thousand men and nine field-pieces ; 
the lowest statement of the enemy is not so low as one thou- 
sand killed — a slaughter, from which we may form some 
idea of the proportion of their wounded. Not having made 
good the defense of the Brandywine, the American army fell 
back twenty-six miles, to the Schuylkill ; nor did General 
Howe derive any advantage from the possession of the field 
of battle. This is the fortieth day since the engagement, 
and we have heard from Philadelphia, in less than half the 
time, circumstances furnishing reasonable ground to conclude, 
that for at least three weeks after his victory, General Howe 
made no impression upon the army of the United States ; 
and that he purchased his passage of the Brandywine at no 
small price. He carried Bunker Hill ; but he lost Boston. 
I trust he has passed the Brandywine but to sacrifice his 
army as it were, in presence of our illustrious Congress, as 
an atonement for his ravages and conflagrations in America. 

Having thus taken a general and concise view of the pro- 
gress of the war in the north, let us now turn our attention 



286 Historical and 

to our situation at home. In respect of our governmeiit, it 
IS affectionately obeyed. With regard to cannon, arms and 
ammunition, we are in a truly respectable condition. As to 
trade, we are the grand emporium for the continent. Oh ! 
that I could but give as good an account of the public vigor 
of the people. 

Alas ! it seems to have been exported in the same bottoms 
with the growth of their lands. What ? are wo sensible that 
we are yet at war with Great Britain ? We proceed as if " 
we had totally vanquished the enemy. Are we aware, that 
to continue such a conduct is to allure them to enact in this 
State, that tragedy they performed the last winter in the 
Jerseys? Do we intend to acquire an experimental know- 
ledge of the horrors of war ? Do we desire to be driven 
from this beautiful town — to be dispossessed of this valuable 
seat of trade — to see ourselves flying we know not whither — 
our heirs uselessly sacrificed in our sight, and their bodies 
mangled with repeated stabs of bayonets? Tell me, do you 
mean tliat your ears shall be pierced with the unavailing 
shrieks of your wives, and the agonizing screams of your 
daughters, under the brutal violence of British or Brunswick 
ruffians? Rouse, rouse yourselves into an activity capable 
of securing you against such horrors. In every quarter the 
enemy are vanquished or baffled. They are at a stand. 
Cease, my beloved countrymen, cease, by your languor in 
public defense, and your ardor after private gain, to invite 
them to turn their steps this way and seize your country as 
a rich and easy prey. The States of America are attacked 
by Britain. They ought to consider themselves as an army 
drawn up to receive the shock of assault, and from tlie nature 
of their ground, occupying thirteen towns and villages in 
the extent of their line. Common prudence dictates that 
the several corps, in th(ur respective stations, during the 
whole time they are in battalia, should use the utmost vigi- 
lance and dilio-ence in beino- on their ouaid, and \u add! no- 
strength to strength for their security. We are in the right 
wing of the American line, and at a distance from the main 
body — are we doing our duty ? No, we have in a manner 
laid up our arms — nay, even prizes are prepared for the 
horse-race ! AVe can spare no laborers to the pubiic, because 
we are employing them to collect, on all sides, articles of 



Eevolutionary Incidents, 287 

private emolument. We amuse ourselves with enquiries into 
the conduct of those who permitted the loss of Ticonderoga, 
nor do we appear to have an idea that others will, in their 
turn, scrutinize our conduct at this juncture — a crisis when 
we know that the enemy have collected their force, and are 
actually advanced against the main battle of the Americans ; 
where, if tliey find they can make no impression — and we 
have now a flattering prospect that they will find their efforts 
abortive — it is but reasonable to imagine they will recoil upon 
upon our post. They will sail faster against, than aid can 
be marched to us. Their arrival will be sudden — shall they 
find us shampfully occupied in the amusements and business of 
peace? Why has the Almighty endowed us with a recollection 
of events, but that we may be enabled to prepare against 
dangers, by avoiding the errors and follies, the negligence 
and supineness by which others have been ruined. If a sense 
of our duty to our country, or of safety to posterity, is too 
weak to rouse us to action, if the noble passions of the mind 
have not force to elevate us to glory — the meaner ones, 
perhaps, may drive us into a state of security. The miser, 
amidst all his anxiety to add to his heap, is yet careful to 
provide a strong box for its safety. Shall we neglect such 
an example of prudence ? Pride raised Cassias' dagger 
against Cffisar, and procured for him the glorious title of the 
last of the Romans. We were the first in America who pub- 
licly pronounced Lord North's famous conciliatory motion 
inadmissible — we raised the first regular forces upon the 
continent, and for a term of tliree years — we first declared 
the causes of taking up arms — we originated councils of 
safety — we were among the first who led the way to Inde- 
pendence, by establishing a constitution of government — we 
were the first who made a law authorizing the capture of 
British vessels, without distinction — we alone luive defeated a 
British fleet — we alone luive victoriously pierced through, and 
reduced a powerful nation of Indians, who, urged by Britain, 
had attacked the United States. But such brilliant proceed- 
ings, unless supported with propriety, will cover us vdth 
infamy. They will appear as the productions of faction, 
folly and temerity, not of patriotism, wisdom and valor. 
What a contrast ! how humiliating the one — how gioi-iou» 



288 HiSTOBICAL AND 

the otlier ! Will not pride spur us on to add to the catalogue'? 
Will you not strive to rival the vigor of the North? Da 
we admire the great names of antiquity ? Do we wish for 
an opportunity to he equally celebrated by posterity ? 

Then the present — there never was a more inviting or 
certain opportunity of acquiring an immortal name. A 
world to be converted into an Empire, is the work now in. 
hand — a work wherein the names of the workmen will he 
engraved in indelible characters. Shall we not exert our- 
selves to be ranked in this most illustrious list ? Nor is it 
so difficult a thing to acquire place in it as may be imagined ; 
it is in every man's power to exert himself with vigor and 
constancy. 

]\Iy dear countrymen, trifle not with an opportunity unex- 
ampled, and not to be recalled — it is passing with rapidity. 
Let us put our hands to our breasts, and examine what we 
have done in forwarding this imperial structure. How many 
must say, I have youth, strength, activity, an abundant for- 
tune, learning, sense — or some of these blessings ; but — I 
have shown my attachment to America, only by a moment- 
ary vigor, to mark my inconstancy — scrutinizing the conduct 
of others — good wishes — and inquiring the news of the day. 
Such men must be sensible of a disgraceful inferiority, when 
they hear those American names, which the trumpet of fame 
now sounds through the world — a blast that will reach the 
ears of the latest posterity. 

Surely, such men may have a desire to be relieved from so 
oppressive a sensation? The remedy is within their own 
power ; and if they will use it, while it throws off their dis- 
grace, it will operate for the benefit of their country. Let 
them inquire of the President, what service they can ren- 
der THE STATE ? To a ricli planter he would say, if you will 
send twenty, thirty, or forty laborers to the public works, and 
for whom you shall he paid, you will do an essential service 
in a critical time. To another, if you will diligently over- 
look, and push on the construction of such a battery, or line, 
you will merit the thanks of your fellow-citizens. To & 
third, if instead of hunting, you will ride about your neigh- 
borhood, or a little beyond, and endeavor to instruct those 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 



28<J 



who are ignorant, of the importance of the public contest — 
reclaim the deluded — animate the timid — rouse the lan- 
guid — and raise a spirit of emulation as to who shall exert 
himself most in the cause of freedom and America, you will 
deserve the applause of the continent. How many opportu 
nities are there for a man to distinguish himself, and to be 
beneficial to his country ! 
25 



CHAPTER XX 

The Settlementa in the West — Biography of Boone, by Himself — Biogra- 
phy of Simon Kenton. 

Since the peace with the Indians on the western frontier, 
various projects had been started for settlements beyond the 
mountains. In a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, the Six 
Nations, in consideration of the payment of X10,460, had 
ceded to the crown all the country south of the Ohio, as far as 
the Cherokee or Tennessee river. So much of this region as 
lay south of the Great Kanawha was claimed, however, by 
the Cherokees as a part of their hunting-grounds. The 
banks of the Kanawha, or New river, flowing north into the 
Ohio, across the foot of the great central Allegheny ridge, 
already began to be occupied by individual settlers. Appli- 
cation was soon made to the British government, by a company 
— of which Franklin, Sir William Johnson, Walpole, a 
wealthy London banker, and others, were members — for 
tliat part of this newly-ceded territory north of the Kanar 
wha, and thence to the Upper Ohio. They offered to refund 
the whole amount paid to the Indians, and proposed to estab- 
lish on the ceded lands a new and separate colony. This grant, 
though opposed by Lord Hillsborough, was finally agreed 
to by the ministry; but the increasing troubles between 
tlie colonies and the mother country prevented its final 
completion. Other grants solicited and ceded north of the 
Ohio were defeated by the same cause. Such was the origin 
of the Walpole or Ohio Company, the Vandalia Company, the 
Indiana Company — founded on a cession said to have been 
made to certain traders at the treaty of Fort Stanwix — and 
other land companies, not without a marked influence on the 
290 



Revolutionary Incidents. 291 

politics of a future period. Even the distMut regions on the 
shores of Lake Superior attracted the attention of some 
adventurous speculators, by whom attempts were made to 
work the mines ; but the expenses attendant upon so remote 
an undertaking, caused it to be speedily abandoned. 

The first settlement within the limits of the jjresent State 
of Tennessee was made by emigrants from North Carolina, 
under the leadership of James Robinson, who settled on the 
Wataga, one of the head streams of the Tennessee river, on 
lands of the Cherokee.s, from whom, however, these settlers 
presently obtained an eight years' lease. As in the early 
settlements of New England, these emigrants organized 
themselves into a body politic. A code of laws was assented 
to, and signed by each individual of the colony. Others who 
joined them soon extended the settlement down the Valley 
of the Houlston, and, crossing the intervening ridges, occu- 
pied the banks of the Nolichucky and Clinch rivers, while 
others yet passed into Powell's Valley, the south-western 
iorner of the present State of Virginia. 

John Finley, an Indian trader, returning to North Caro- 
lina from the still more distant regions beyond the western- 
tnost mountains, brought back glowing accounts of that fertile 
country. He persuaded Daniel Boone, a native of Maryland, 
md four other settlers on the Yadkin, to go with him to 
explore it. Having reached the head waters of the Ken- 
tucky, these adventurers saw from the hills fertile plains 
stretching toward the Ohio, covered with magnificent forests, 
ranged over by numerous herds of buffalo, and abounding 
ivith other game. They had several encounters with Indians. 
But we furnish here an account of Boone's own life, taken 
lown from his own lips, by a cotemporary : 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN DANIEL BOONE. 

Comprising an Account of the Wars with the Indians on the 

Ohio, from 1769 to 1782. 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 

It was on the 1st of May, 1769, that I resigned my 
lomestic happiness, and left my family and peaceable habi- 
ation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander 
hrough the wilderness of America, in quest of the country 



292 Historical and 

of Kentucky, in company witli John Finley, John Stuart^ 
Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. 

On the 7th of June, after travelling in a western direction^ 
we found ourselves on Eed river, where John Finley had for-j 
nierly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an; 
eminence saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky.! 
For some time we had experienced the most uncomfortable! 
weather. We now encamped, made a shelter to defend usi 
from the inclement season, and began to hunt, and reconnoiter 
the country. We found abundance of wild beasts in this vast! 
forest. The buffaloes were more numerous than cattle in, 
the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or: 
cropping the herbage on these extensive plains. We saw 
hundi"eds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt-springs; 
were amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of: 
every American kind, we hunted with great success until 
December. ; 

On the 22d of December, John Stuart and I had a please 
ing ramble ; but fortune changed the day at the close of it. 
We passed through a great forest, in which stood myriads o^ 
trees, some gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits.; 
Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. 
Here she displayed her ingenuity knd industry in a variety 
of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, 
and charmingly flavored ; and we were favored with number^ 
less animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view." 
In the decline of the day, near Kentucky river, as we 
ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indiana 
rushed out of a canebreak and made us prisoners. The 
Indians plundered us, and kept us in confinement seven days.. 
During this time, we discovered no uneasiness or desire td 
escape, which made them less suspicious ; but in the dead ofi 
night, as we lay by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when 
sleep had locked up their senses, my situation not disposing, 
me to rest, I gently awoke my companion. We seized this 
favorable opportunity and departed, directing our course 
toward the old camp, but found it plundered, and our com- 
pany destroyed or dispersed. 

About this time, my brother with another adventurer, who 
came to explore the country shortly after us, were wandering 
through the forest, and accidentally came upon our camp.] 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 29S 

.!Kotwithstanding our unfortunate circumstances, and our dan- 
gerous situation, surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting 
fortunately in the wilderness gave us the most sensible 
, satisfaction. 

[ Soon after this my companion in captivity, John Stuart, 
,was killed by the savages, and the man who came with my 
•brother, while on a private excursion was soon after attacked 
■and killed by the wolves. We were now in a dangerous 
and helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death, 
among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the 
•country but ourselves. 

I Although many hundred miles from our families, in the 

^howling wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolence, 

but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend 

^us from the winter. On the 1st of May, 1770, my brother 

: 'returned home for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, 

leaving me alone, without bread, salt, or sugar, or even a 

horse or a dog. I passed a few days uncomfortably. The 

idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on my 

[account, would have disposed me to melancholy if I had fur- 

i ther indulged the thouo;ht. 

i One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the 
i<iiversities and beauties of nature I met with in this charming 
(season expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of 
the day, the gentle gales ceased ; a profound calm ensued ; not 
^ breath shook the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit 
of a commanding ridge, and looking around with astonishing 
delight, beheld tlie ample plains and beauteous tracts below. 
On one hand, I surveyed the famous Ohio rolling in silent 
dignity, and marking the western boundary of Kentucky 
with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld 
the mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate the 
clouds. All things were still, I kindled a fire near a fountain 
of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck which I had 
killed a few hours before. The shades of night soon over- 
spread the hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp after 
the hovering moisture. At a distance I frequently heard the 
hideous yells of savages. My excursion had fatigued my 
body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, and 
awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I con- 
-t'nued this tour, and in a few days explored a considerable 
25* 



294 Historical and 

part of tlie country, each day equally pleasing as the first ; 
after which I returned to my old camp, which had not been 
disturbed in my absence. I could not confine my lodging to 
it, but often reposed in thick cauebrakes to avoid the savages, 
who I believe frequently visited my camp, but, fortunately 
for me, in my absence. No populous city, with all its varie- 
ties of commerce and stately structures, could afford such 
pleasure to my mind, as the beauties of nature I found in 
this country. 

Until the 27th of July, I spent my time in an uninter- 
rupted scene of sylvan pleasures, when my brother, to my 
great felicity, met me according to appointment, at our old 
camp. Soon after, wo left the place, and proceeded to Cum- 
berland river, reconnoitering that part of the country, and 
giving names to the different rivers. 

In March, 1771, I returned home to my fa^iily, being 
determined to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of 
my life and fortune, to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed 
a second Paradise. 

On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. 
I sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not 
carry with us, and on the 25th of September, 1773, we took 
leave of our friends and proceeded on our journey to Ken- 
tucky, in company with five more families, and forty men 
that joined us in Powell's Valley, which is one hundred and 
fifty miles from the new settled parts of Kentucky. But 
this promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of 
adversity. 

On the 10th of October thn rear of our company was 
attacked by a party of Indians, who killed six, and wounded 
one man. ' Of these my oldest son was one that fell in the 
action. Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy 
affair scattered, our cattle and brought us into extreme diffi- 
culty. We returned forty miles, to the settlement on Clench 
river. We had passed over two mountains, Powell and Wal- 
den's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain, when this, 
adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the 
wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia tO' 
Kentucky ; they range in a southwest and northeast direc- 
tion ; are of great length and breadth, and not far distant 
from each other. Over them Nature has formed passes less 



Eevolutionaey Incidents. 295 

difficult than might be expected from the view of such huge 
piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that 
it is impossible to behold them without horror. 

Until the 6th of June, 1774, I remained with my family 
on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited 
by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of 
surveyors to the falls of Ohio. This was a tour of eight 
hundred miles, and took sixty-two days. 

On my return. Gov. Dunmore gave me the command of 
three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnese. 
In March, 1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentle- 
men of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Wataga 
with the Cherokee Indians, to purchase the lands on the 
south side of Kentucky river. xVfter this, I undertook to 
mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements 
through the wilderness to Kentucky. 

Having collected a number of enterprising men, well 
armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded uutil we came 
within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where 
the Indians attacked us, and killed two, and wounded two 
more of our party. This was on the 22d of March, 1775. 
Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we 
had two more killed, and three wounded. After this, we 
proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition. 

On the 1st of April, we began to erect the fort of Boons- 
borough, at a salt lick sixty yards from the river, on the 
south side. On the 4th the Indians killed one of our men. 
On tbje 14th of June, having completed the fort, I returned 
to my family on the Clench, and whom I soon afterward 
removed to the fort. My wife and daughter were supposed 
to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of 
Kentucky river. 

On the 24th of December, the Indians killed one of our 
men, and wounded another; and on the 15th of July, 1776, 
they took my daughter prisoner. I immediately pursued 
them with eight men, and on the 16th overtook and engaged' 
them. I killed two of them and recovered my daughter. 

The Indians, having divided themselves into several par- 
ties, attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, 
doing a great deal of damage. The husbandmen were . 
ambushed and unexpectedly attacked while toiling in the 



296 Historical and 

field. They continued this kind of warfare until the 15th 
of April, 1777, when nearly one hundred of them attacked 
the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of its 
inhabitants. On the 16th Colonel Logan's fort was attacked 
by two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in 
the fort, of whom the enemy killed two, and wounded one. 

On the 20th of August, Colonel Bowman arrived with one 
hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we 
had almost daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began now 
to learn the superiority of the " long knife," as they termed 
the Virginians ; being out-generalled in almost every action. 
Our affairs began now to wear a better aspect ; the Indians 
no longer daring to face us in open field, but sought private 
opportunities to destroy us. 

On the 7th of February, 1778, while on a hunting excur- 
sion alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians, 
and two Frenchmen, marching to attack Boonsborough. They 
pursued and took me prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chili- 
cothe, the principal Indian town on Little Miami, where we 
arrived on the 18th of February, after an uncomfortable 
journey. On the 10th of March I was conducted to Detroit, 
and while there, was treated with great humanity by Gov. 
Hamilton, the British commmander at that port, and 
Intendant for Indian affairs. 

The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused 
one hundred pounds sterling, offered them by the Governor, 
if they would consent to leave me with him, that he might 
be enabled to liberate me on my parole. Several English 
gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible of my adverse fortune, 
and touched with sympathy, generously oftered to supply my 
wants, which 1 declined with many thanks, adding that I 
never expected it would be in my power to recompense such 
unmerited generosity. 

On the 10th of April, the Indians returned with me to 
Old Chilicothe, where we arrived on the 25th. This was a 
long and fatiguing march, although through an exceeding 
fertile country, remarkable for springs and streams of water. 
At Chilicothe I spent my time as comfortably as I could 
expect ; was adopted, according to their custom, into a family 
where I became a son, and had a great share in the affection of 
my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. I was exceed- 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 297 

ingly familiar and friendly with them, always appearing as 
cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confi- 
. dence in me. I often went a hunting with them, and fre- 
quently gained the applause for ray activity at our shooting 
matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them in shoot- 
ing, for-no people are more envious than they in this sport. I 
<;ould observe in their countenances and gestures the great- 
est expressions of joy when they exceeded me, and when the 
reverse happened, of envy. The Shawanese king took great 
notice of me, and treated me with profound respect, and 
-entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. 
I frequently returned with the spoils of the woods, and as 
often presented some of what I had taken to him, expressive 
of duty to my sovereign. My food and lodging were in com- 
mon with them ; not so good, indeed, as I could desire, but 
necessity made everything acceptable. 

I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully avoided 
giving suspicion. I continued at Chilicothe until the 1st 
day of June, when I was taken to the salt springs on Sciotha, 
and there employed ten days in the manufacturing of salt. 
During this time, I hunted with my Indian masters, and 
found the land, for a great extent about this river, to exceed 
the soil of Kentucky. 

On my return to Chilicothe, one hundred and fifty of the 
choicest Indian warriors were ready to march against Boons- 
borough. They were painted and armed in a frightful man- 
ner. This alarmed me, and I determined to escape. 

On the 26th of June, before sunrise, I went off secretly, 
and reached Boonsborough on the 30th, a journey of one 
iiundred and sixty miles, during which I had only one meal. 
I found our fortress in a bad state, but we immediately 
repaired our flanks, gates, posterns, and formed double bas- 
tions, which we completed in ten days. One of my fellow- 
prisoners escaped after me, and brought advice, that on 
account of my flight, the Indians had put off their expedition 
for three weeks. 

About the 1st of August, I set out with nineteen men, to 
surprise Point Creek-town, on Sciotha, within four miles of 
which we fell in with forty Indians going against Boons- 
borough. We attacked them, and they soon gave way, with- 
out any loss on our part. 



298 Historical and 

The enemy had one killed and two wounded. We took 
three horses and all their baggage. The Indians having 
evacuated their town, and gone altogether against Boons- 
borough, we returned, passed them on the 6tJli, and on the 
7th, arrived safe at Boonsborough. 

On the Uth, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred 
and forty-four men, under tho command of Captain Duquesne, 
and eleven other Frenchmen, and their chiefs, arrived and 
summoned the fort to surrender. I reqviested two days' 
consideration, which was granted. During this we brought 
in through the posterns all the horses and other cattle we 
could collect. 

On the 9th, in the evening, I informed their commander, 
that we were determined to defend the fort while a man was 
living. They then proposed a treaty : they would withdraw. 
The treaty was held within sixty yards of the fort, as we 
suspected the savages. The articles were agreed to and 
signed, when the Indians told us, as it was their custom for 
two Indians to shake hands with every white man in the 
treaty, as an evidence of friendship. AVe agreed to this 
also. They immediately grappled us to take us prisoners, 
but we cleared ourselves of them, though surrounded by 
hundreds, and gained the fort safe, except one man, who was 
wounded by a heavy fire from the enemy. 

The savages now began to undermine the fort, beginning 
at the watermark of Kentucky river, wdiich is sixty yards 
from the fort ; this we discovered by the water being made 
muddy by the clay. We countermined them by cutting a 
trench across their subterraneous passage. The enemy dis- 
covering this by the clay we threw out of the fort, desisted. 
On the 20th of August, they raised the siege, during which 
we had two men killed, and four wounded. We lost a num- 
ber of cattle. The loss of the enemy was thirty-seven 
killed, and a much larger number wounded. We picked up 
one hundred and twenty-five pounds of their bullets, beside 
what stuck in the logs of the fort. 

In July, 1779, during my absence. Colonel Bowman, with 
one hundred and sixty men, went against the Shawanese of 
Old Chilicothe. He arrived undiscovered. A battle ensued, 
which lasted until ten in the morning, when Colonel Bow 
man retreated thirty miles. The Indians collected all theii 



Kevolutioxary Incidents. 299 

strength and pursued him, when another engagement ensued 
for two hours, not to Colonel Bowman's advantage. Colonel 
Harrod proposed to mount a number of horses, and break 
the enemy's line, who at this time fouglit with remarkable 
fury. This desperate measure had a happy effect, and the 
savages fled on all sides. In these two engagements we had 
nine men killed and one wounded. Enemy's loss uncertain. 
Only two scalps were taken. 

June 23d, 1780, five hundred Indians and Canadians under 
Colonel Bird, attacked Eiddle and Martaiu's station, and the 
forks of Licking River, with six pieces of artillery. They 
took all the inhabitants captive, and killed one man and two 
women, loading the others with the heavy baggage, and such 
as failed in the journey were tomahawked. 

The hostile disposition of the savages caused General 
Clarke, the commandant at the falls of Ohio, to march with 
his regiment and the armed force of the country against 
Peccaway, the principal town of the Shawanese, on a branch 
the Great Miami, which he attacked with great success, took 
seventy scalps, and reduced the town to ashes, with the loss 
of seventeen men. 

About this time, I returned to Kentucky Avith my family ; 
for diiring my captivity, my wife, thinking me killed by the 
Indians, had transported my family and goods, on horses, 
through the wilderness, amidst great dangers, to her father's 
house in North Carolina. 

On the 6th of October, 1780, soon after my settling again 
at Boonesborough, I went with my brother to the Blue Licks, 
and on our return, he was shot by a party of Indians, who 
followed me by the scent of a dog, which I shot and escaped. 
The severity of the winter caused great distress in Kentucky, 
the enemy, during the summer, having destroyed most of 
the corn. The inhabitants lived chiefly on buffalo's flesh. 

In the spring of 1702, the Indians harassed us. In May, 
they ravished, killed, and scalped a woman and her two 
daughters, near Ashton's station, and took a negro prisoner. 
Captain Ashton pursued them with twenty-five men, and in 
an engagement which lasted two hours, his party were 
obliged to retreat, having eight killed, and four mortally 
wounded. Their brave commander fell in the action. 

On August 18th, two boys were carried off from Major 



BOO IIlSTOEICAL AND 

Hoy's station. Captain Holder pursued the enemy with 
seventeen men, who were also defeated, with the loss of 
seven killed and two wounded. Our affairs became more 
and more alarming*. The savages infested the country, and 
■destroyed the whites as opportunity presented. In a field 
near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to 
scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead 
upon the ground. All the Indian nations were now united 
against us. 

On August 15th, five hundred Indians and Canadians came 
against Briat's station, five miles from Lexington. They 
assaulted the fort, and killed all the cattle round it ; but 
being repulsed, they retired the third day, having about 
eighty killed ; their wounded uncertain. The garrison had 
four killed, and nine wounded. 

On August 10th, Colonels Todd and Trigg, Major Harland 
and myself, speedily collected one hundred and seventy-six 
men, well-armed, and pursued the savages. They had 
marched beyond the Blue Licks, to a remarkable bend of the 
main fork of the Licking Eiver, about forty-three miles 
from Lexington, where we overtook them on the 19th. 
The savages observing us, gave way, and we, ignorant of 
their numbers, passed the river. When they saw our pro- 
ceedings, having greatly the advantage in situation, they 
formed their line of battle from one end of the Licking to 
the other, about a mile from the Blue Licks. The engage- 
ment was close and warm for about fifteen minutes, when we, 
being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to retreat, with 
a loss of sixty-seven men,. seven of whom were taken prison- 
ers. The brave and much lamented colonels, Todd and 
Trigg, Major Harland, and my second son, were among the 
■dead. We were afterward informed that the Indians, on 
numbering their dead, finding that they had four more 
killed than we, four of our people they had taken, were 
given up to their young warriors, to be put to death after 
their barbarous manner. 

On our retreat, we were met by Colonel Logan, who was 
hastening to join us with a number of well-armed men. 
This powerful assistance we wanted on the day of the battle. 
The enemy said, one more fire from us would have made 
them give way. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 301 

I can not reflect upon this dreadful scene, without great 
sorrow. A zeal for the defense of their country, led these 
heroes to the scene of action, though with few men, to attack 
a powerful army of experienced warriors. When we gave 
way, they pursued us with the utmost eagerness, and in 
every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to 
cross, and many were killed in the fight, some just entering 
the river, some in the water, others after crossing, in ascend- 
ing the cliffs. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot ; 
and being dispersed everywhere, in a few hours brought the 
melancholy news of this unfortunate battle to Lexington. 
Many widows were now made. The reader may guess what 
sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, exceeding any 
thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we 
returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed 
everywhere, cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This 
mournful scene exhibited a horror almost unparalleled ; some 
torn and eaten by wild beasts ; those in the river by fishes ; 
all in such a putrid condition that one could not be distin- 
guished from another. 

When General Clarke, at the falls of the Ohio, heard of our 
disaster, he ordered an expedition to pursue the savages. 
We overtook them within two miles of their town, and we 
should have obtained a great victory, had not some of them, 
met us when about two hundred poles from their camp. The 
savages fled in the utmost disorder, and evacuated all their 
towns. We burned to ashes Old Chilicothe, Peccaway, New 
Chilicothe, and Willstown ; entirely destroyed their corn and 
other fruits, and spread desolation through their country. 
We took seven prisoners and fifteen scalps, and lost only 
four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by ourselves. 
This campaign damped the enemy, yet they made secret 
incursions. 

In October, a party attacked Crab Orchard, and one of 
them, being a good way before the others, boldly entered a 
house, in which were only a woman and her children, and a 
negro man. The savage used no violence, but attempted to 
carry off the negro, who happily proved too strong for him, 
and threw him on the ground, and in the struggle, the woman 
cut off his head with an ax, while her little daughter shut 
the door. The savages instantly came up, and applied their 
26 



302 Historical and 

tomaliawks to the door, when the mother putting an old 
rusty gun barrel through the crevice, the savages immedi- 
ately went off. 

From that time till the happy return of peace between 
the United States and Great Britain, the Indians did us no 
mischief. Soon after this, the Indians desired peace. 

Two darling sons and a brother, I have lost by savage 
hands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, 
and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights 
have I spent, separated from the cheerful society of men, 
scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's 
cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness. 

Daniel Boone. 

Fayette County, Kentucky. 

We will, while upon this subject, furnish also a biographi- 
cal sketch of Simon Kenton, the heroic cotemporary of Daniel 
Boone, and which is attributed to his own rude pen. Taking 
the two sketches together, they comprise a graphic sum- 
mary of Indian history in the West, at this period of the 
life of " Sam." 

Simon Kenton was a Virginian by birth, and emigrated to 
the wilds of the West in the year 1771. He was born, 
(according to a manusciipt whicli he dictated to a gentleman 
of Kentucky, several years since,) in Fauquier county, on 
the 15th of May, 1755, of poor parents. His early life was 
passed principally on a farm. At the age of sixteen, having 
a quarrel with a rival in a love-affair, he left his antagonist 
upon the ground for dead, and made quick steps for the wil- 
derness. In the course of a few days, wandering to and fro, 
he arrived at a small settlement on Cheat Creek, one of the 
forks of the Monongahela, where he called himself Butler. 
Here, according to Mr. M'Clung, whose interesting account 
of Kenton, in the " Sketches of Western Adventure," we are 
following, he attached himself to a small company headed 
by John Mahon and Jacob Greathouse, which was about start- 
ing farther west, on an exploring expedition. He was soon 
induced, however, by a young adventurer of the name of 
Yager, who had been taken by the western Indians when a 
child, and spent many years among them, to detach himself 
from the comjiany, and go with him to a land which the 



Bevolution'Ary Incidents. 303 

Indians called Kan-tuc-kee, and which he represented as 
being a perfect elysium. Accompanied by another young 
man, named Strader, they set off for the backwoods paradise 
in high spirits : Kenton not doubting that he should find a 
country flowing with milk and honey, where ho would have 
little to do but to eat, drink, and be merry. Such, however, 
was not his luck. They continued wandering through the 
wilderness for some weeks, without finding the " promised 
land," and then retraced their steps, and successively ex- 
plored the land about Salt-Lick, Little and Big Sandy, and 
Guyandotte. At length, being totally wearied out, they 
turned their attention entirely to hunting and trapping, and 
thus spent nearly two years. Being discovered by the Indians, 
and losing one of his companions, (Strader,) Kenton was com- 
pelled to abandon his trapping-waters, and Imnting-grounds. 
After divers hardships, he succeeded in reaching the mouth 
of the Little Kenhawa, with his remaining companion, where 
he found and attached himself to another exploring party. 
This, however, was attacked by the Indians, soon after com- 
mencing the descent of the Ohio, compelled to abandon its 
canoes, and strike diagonally through the woods for Green- 
briar county. Its members suffered much in accomplishing 
this journey, from fatigue, sickness and famine ; and on 
reaching the settlements, separated. 

Kenton's rival of the love-affair had long since recovered 
from the castigation which he had given him. But of this, 
the young hero had not heard. He therefore did not think 
proper to venture home ; but, instead, built a canoe on the 
Monongahela, and once more sought the mouth of the Great 
Kenhawa, where he hunted till the spring of 1774. This 
year, he descended the Ohio as far as the mouth of Big Bone 
creek, and was engaged in various explorations till 1778, 
when he joined Daniel Boone in his expedition against the 
Indian town on Paint creek. Immediately on his return 
from this, he was despatched by Colonel Bowman, with two 
companions, to make observations upon the Indian towns on 
Little Miami, against which the colonel meditated an expedi- 
tion. He reached the towns in safety, and made the neces- 
sary surveys without being observed by the Indians ; and the 
expedition might have terminated much to his credit, and 
been very useful t< the settlers in Kentucky, had he not, 



304 Historical and 

"before leaving the towns, stolen a number of the Indians' 
horses. The animals were missed early on the following 
morning, the trail of the marauders was discovered, and 
pursuit instantly commenced. Kenton and his companions 
soon heard cries in their rear, knew that they had been dis- 
covered, and saw the necessity of riding for their lives. 
They therefore dashed through the woods at a furious rate, 
with the hue and cry after them, until their course was 
suddenly interrupted by an impenetrable swamp. Here they 
from necessity, paused for a few moments, and listened atten- 
tively. Hearing no sounds of pursuit, they resumed their 
course — and skirting the swamp for some distance, in the 
vain hope of crossing it, they dashed off in a straight line 
for the Ohio. They continued their furious speed for forty- 
eight hours, halting but once or twice for a few minutes to 
take some refreshment, and reached the Ohio in safety. 
The river was high and rough, and they found it impossible 
to urge the jaded horses over. Various efforts were made,- 
but all failed. Kenton was never remarkable for prudence ; 
and on this occasion, his better reason seems to have deserted 
him entirely. By abandoning the animals, he might yet 
have escaped, though several hours had been lost in en- 
deavoring to get them over. But this he could not make 
up his mind to do. He therefore called a council, when it 
was determined, as they felt satisfied they must be some 
twelve hours in advance of their pursuers, that they should 
conceal their horses in a neighboring ravine, and themselves 
take stations in an adjoining wood, in the hope that by sun- 
set, the high wind would abate, and the state of the river 
be such as to permit their crossing with the booty. At the 
hour waited for, however, the wind was higher, and the 
water rougher than ever. Still, as if completely infatuated, 
they remained in their dangerous position through the night. 
The next morning was mild, the Indians had not yet been 
heard in pursuit, and Kenton again urged the horses over. 
But, recollecting the difficulties of the preceding day, the 
affrighted animals could not now be induced to enter the 
water at all. Each of the three men therefore mounted a 
horse, abandoning the rest, (they had stolen quite a drove,) 
and started down the river, with the intention of, keeping 
the Ohio and Indiana side till they should arrive opposite 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 305 

Louisville. But they were slow in making even this move- 
ment ; and they had not ridden over a hundred yards when 
they heard a loud halloo, proceeding apparently from the 
spot which they had just left. They were soon surrounded 
by the pursuers. One of Kenton's companions effected his 
escape, the other was killed. Kenton was made prisoner — 
" falling a victim," says Mr. M'Clung, " to his excessive love 
of horseflesh." 

After the Indians had scalped his dead companion, and 
kicked and cuffed Kenton to their hearts' content, they com- 
pelled him to lie down upon his back, and stretch out his 
arms to their full length. They then passed a stout stick 
at right angles across his hreast, to each extremity of which, 
■ his wrists were fastened by thongs' of huffalo-hide. Stakes 
were next driven into the earth near his feet, to which they 
were fastened in like manner. A halter was then tied round 
his neck, and fastened to a sapling which grew near. And 
finally, a strong rope was passed under his body, and wound 
several times round his arms at the elbows — thus lashing 
them to the stick which lay across his hreast, and to which 
his wrists were fastened, in a manner peculiarly painful. 
He could move neither feet, arms, nor head ; and was kept 
in this position till the next morning. The Indians then 
wishing to commence their return-journey, unpiiiioncd Ken- 
ton, and lashed him by the feet, to a wild, unbroken colt, (one 
of the animals he had stolen from them,) with his hands tied 
behind him. 

In this, manner he was driven into a captivity, as cruel, sin- 
gular, and remarkable in other respects, as any in the whole 
nistory of Indian warfare upon this continent. " A fatalist," 
says the author of the Sketches of Western Adventure, " would 
recognise the hand of destiny in every stage of its progress. 
In the infatuation with which Kenton refused to adopt proper 
measures for his safety, while such were practicable; in the 
persevering obstinacy with which he remained on the Ohio 
shore until flight became useless ; and afterward, in thai 
remarkable succession of accidents, by which, without the 
least exertion on his part, he, was so often at one hour tan- 
talized with a prospect of safety, and the next plunged into 
the deepest despair. He was eight times exposed to the 
gauntlet — three times tied to the stake — an/i as often 
26* 



306 Historical and 

thought himself upon the eve of a terrible death. All the 
sentences passed upon him, whetliei* of mercy or condemna- 
tion, seem to have been pronounced in one council only to be 
reversed in another. Every friend that Providence raised up 
in his favor, was immediately followed by some enemy, who 
unexpectedly interposed, and turned his short glimpse of 
sunshine into deeper darkness than ever. For three weeks 
lie was constantly soe-sawing between life and death ; and 
during the whole time, he was perfectly passive. No wisdom, 
or foresight, or exertion, could have saved him. Fortune 
fouglit his battle from first to last, and seemed determined 
<o permit nothing else to interfere. 

He was eventually liberated from the Indians, when about 
to be bound to the stake for the fourth time and burnt, by an 
Indian agent of the name of Drewyer, who was anxious to 
obtain intelligence for the British commander at Detroit, of 
the strength and condition of the settlements in Kentucky. 
He got nothing important out of Kenton ; but the three 
weeks. Football of Fortune was sent to Detroit, from which 
place he effected his escape in about eight montlis, and 
returned to Kentucky. Fearless and active, he soon embarked 
in new enterprises ; and was with George Rogers Clarke, in 
liis celebrated expedition against Viucennes and Kaskaskia ; 
with Edwards, in his abortive expedition to the Indian towns 
in 1785 — and with Wayne, in his decisive campaign of 1794. 

Simon Kenton, throughout the struggles of the pioneers, 
had the reputation of being a valuable scout, a hardy woods- 
man, and a brave Indian fighter; but in reviewing his event- 
ful career, he appears to have greatly lacked discretion, and 
to have evinced frequently a want of energy. In his after 
life he was much respected, and he continued to the last fond 
of regaling listeners with stories of the early times. A 
friend of ours, who about three years ago made a visit to the 
abode of the venerable patriarch, describes in the following 
terms his appearance at that time: " Kenton's form, even 
under the weight of seventy-nine years, is striking, and 
must have been a model of manly strength and agility. His 
eye is blue, mild, and yet penetrating in its glance. The 
forehead projects very much at the eyebrows — which are well 
defined — and then recedes, and is neither very high nor very 
broad. His liair, which in active life was light, is now quite 



ReVOLUTIOXAKY IXCIDEXTS. 307 

•gray ; his nose is straight; and his mouth, before he lost his 
teeth, must have been expressive and handsome. I observed 
that he had yet one tooth — which, in connection with his 
■character and manner of conversation, was continually remind- 
ing me of Leatherstocking. The whole face is remarkably 
expressive, not of turbulence or excitement, but rather of 
rumination and self-possession. Simplicity, frankness, honesty, 
and a strict regard to truth, appeared to be the prominent 
traits of his character. In giving an answer to a question 
-which my friend asked him, I was particularly struck with 
his truthfulness and simplicity. The question was, whether 
the account of his life, given in the Sketches of Western 
Adventure, was true or not. " Well, I'll tell you," said he ; 
"not true. The book says that when Blackfish, the Injun 
•warrior, asked me, when they had taken me prisoner, if 
Colonel Boone sent me to steal their horses, I said ' no, sir !' 
Here he looked indignant and rose from his chair. " I tell 
jou I never said ' sir F to an Injun in my life ; I scarcely ever 
say it to a white man." Here Mrs. Kenton, who was engaged 
in some domestic occupation at the table, turned round and 
remarked, that when they were last in Kentucky, some one 
gave her the book to read to her husband ; and that when 
she came to that part, he would not let her read any further. 
"And I tell you," continued he, " I was never tied to a stake 
in my life to be burned. They had me painted black when 
I saw Girty, but not tied to a stake." 

We are inclined to think, notwithstanding this, that the 
statement in the " Sketches," of his being three times tied 
to the stake, is correct ; for the author of that interesting 
work had before him a manuscript account of the pioneer's 
life, which had been dictated by Mr. Kenton, to a gentleman 
of Kentucky, a number of years before, when he had no 
motive to exaggerate, and his memory was comparatively 
unimpaired. But he is now beyond the reach of earthly toil, 
or trouble, or suffering. His old age was as exemplary as 
his youth and manhood had been active and useful. And 
though his last years were clouded by poverty, and his eyes 
closed in a miserable cabin to the light of life, yet shall he 
occupy a bright page in our border history, and his name 
soon open to the light of fame. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Interesting Sketch of the life of General Stark, the hero of Bennington—^ 
The Battle of Bennington — Boston a century ago — Captain Williant 
Cunningham. 

Our history, whicli must necessarily be somewhat episodi- 
cal in its character, since we could hardly pretend to give in 
a single volume, a detailed history of Sam, must now return 
to the more northern arena of his struggles with the great- 
foe whom he has so daringly defied, and with whom he so. 
pertinaciously struggles. We shall give only rapid sketches- 
of the concluding scenes of the Revolution, with some char- 
acteristic specimens of the indomitable humor with which 
the "giant youngling" met all the difficulties of his new 
position of contention with the foremost Powers of all the 
world. The battle of Bennington, which has been referred 
to in a graphic summary of the events of this period, in a pre- 
vious chapter, and taken principally from Judge Drayton's- 
charge, has found a worthy historian in Richard Everett, the 
brother of Edward, and Ave do not conceive, that the transfer 
of this noble sketch of the blutf and hardy hero, Stark, to' 
our pages, does any discredit to the true history of '" Sam" 
and his children. 

THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 

BY RICHARD EVERETT. 

" When Yankees skilled in martial rule, 
First put the British troops to school ; 
Instructed them in warlike trade, 
And new maneuvers of parade, 
The true war dance of Yankee reels, 
And manual exercise of heels ; 
Made them give up like saints complete, 
The arm of tiesh, and trust the feet, 
And work like Christians undissembling. 
Salvation out with fear and trembling." 

308 



Bevolutionary Incidents. 309 

John Siai-k, the hero of Bennington, was a native of New 
Hampshire. At an early age he enlisted in a company of 
rangers, participated in several conflicts with the savages, 
and at last fell into their hands, a prisoner of war. Redeemed 
by his friends for one hundred and three dollars, he joined 
Rogers' rano-ers, and served with distinction throuo-h the 
French and Indian difficulty. When the news came to his 
quiet home, that American blood had been spilt upon the 
green at Lexington, he rallied his countrymen, and hurried 
on to Boston with eight hundred brave mountaineers. He 
presented himself before the American commander on the 
■eve of the battle of Bunker Hill, and receiving a colonel's 
■commission, instantly hurried to the intrenchments. 

Throughout the battle of Bunker Hill, Stark and his New 
Hampshire men nobly sustained the honor of the patriot 
cause, and no troops exceeded in bravery the militia regiment 
of Colonel John Stark. lu the spring of 1776, he went to 
Canada, and at the battle of Trenton he commanded the right 
wing of Washington's army. He was at Princeton, Benning- 
ton, and several other severe battles, always sustaining his 
reputation, as a brave, honorable, sterling patriot, and an 
able general. He was a great favorite of General Washington, 
and very popular in the army. On the 8th of May, 1822, 
.aged ninety-three years, he "was gathered to his fathers," 
and his remains repose upon the banks of the beautiful 
Merrimac, beneath a monument of granite, which bears the 
inscription — " Major-General Stark." 

Having given a very brief sketch of the celebrated ofiicer 
who led our patriot militia upon the field of Bennington, we' 
will proceed with the account of that battle. 

The magnificent army of General Burgoyne, which invaded 
the States in 1777, having become straightened for provisions 
and stores, the royal commander ordered a halt, and sent 
Colonel Baume, a Hessian officer, to scour the country for 
supplies. Baume took a strong force of British infantry, two 
pieces of artillery, and a squadron of heavy German dra- 
goons. A great body of Indians, hired and armed by the 
British, followed his force, or acted as scouts and flanking 
parties. 

Stark, on the intelligence of Burgoyne's invasion, was 
■offered the command of one of two regiments of troops which 



310 Historical and 

were raised in New Hampshire, through the exertions^ 
chiefly, of John Langdon, Speaker of the General Assem- 
bly. Stark had served for a long period as General, hut at 
that time was at home, a private citizen. But at the call of 
his countrymen he again took the field. The two regiments' 
were soon raised, and with them, as senior officer. Stark 
hastened to oppose the British army. At that time the- 
Vermont militia were enrolled into an organization, called 
the " Berkshire llegiment," under Colonel Warner. 

On arriving near Bennington, Stark sent forward Colonel 
Gregg, with n, small force to reconnoiter, but that officer soon 
returned with information that a strong force of British, 
Hessians, and Indians was rapidly approaching. Upon this, 
intelligence. Stark resolved to stand his ground and give 
battle. Messengers were sent at once to the Berkshire mili- 
tia to hurry on, and the patriots were directed to see that, 
their weapons were in good order. This was on the 14th of 
August, 1777. During the day, Baume and his army- 
appeared, and learning that the militia were collecting in 
front of his route, the commander ordered his army to halt^ 
and throw up intrenchments. An express was also sent to- 
General Burgoyne, for reinforcements. 

The 15th was dull and rainy. Both armies continued, 
their preparations, while waiting for reinforcements. Skir- 
mishing was kept up all day and night, between the militia, 
and the Indians, and the latter suffered so severely, that a. 
great portion of the savage force left the field, saying that. 
" the woods were full of Yankees." About 12 o'clock on 
the night of the 15th, a party of Berkshire militia came, 
into the American camp. At the head of one company, was- 
the Eeverend Mr. Allen, of Pittsfield, and that worthy gen- 
tleman appeared full of zeal to meet the enemy. Sometime- 
before daylight, he called on General Stark, and said: . 
** General, the people of Berkshire county have often been- 
called out, without being allowed to fight, and if you don't, 
give them a chance, they have resolved never to turn out 
again." " Very well," replied Stark, " do you want to go at 
it now, while it is dark and rainy ?" " No, not just at this.- 
moment," said the warlike minister. " Then," said the Gen- 
eral, " if the Lord shall once more give us sunshine, and I 
do not give you fighting enough, I '11 never ask you to com^ 



Eevolutionaey Incidents. 311 

out again !" This satisfied the preacher, and he went out to 
cheer up his flock with the good news. 

Day dawned, bright and warm, on the 16th. All nature, 
invigorated by the mild August rain, glared with beauty and 
fi-eshnass. Before sunrise, the Americans were in motion, 
while from the British intrenchments, the sound of bugles 
and the roll of drums, told that Baume's forces were ready 
for action. Stark early arranged his plan of attack. Col- 
onel Nichols, with three hundred men, was sent out to attack 
the British rear; Colonel Herrick, w^th three hundred men, 
marched against the right flank, but was ordered to join 
Nichols before making his assault general. With about 
three hundred men. Colonels Hubbard and Stickney were 
sent against the entrenched front, while Stark, with a small 
reserve, waited to operate whenever occasion offered. It 
must be remembered that the American forces were militia, 
while Baume's army was made up of well-disciplined, well- 
armed, and experienced soldiers. Many of the patriots were 
armed with fowling-pieces, and there were whole companies 
without a bayonet. They had no artillery. 

General Stark waited impatiently until the roar of mus- 
ketry proclaimed that the different detachments had com- 
menced their attack, and then forming his small battalion, 
he made his memorable speech: ^^ Boys! there's the enemi/, 
and we must beat them, or Molly Starh sleeps a widow 
to-night — Forward !" His soldiers, with enthusiastic shouts, 
rushed forward upon the Hessian defenses, and the battle 
became general. The Hessian dragoons, dismounted, met 
the Americans with stern bravery. The two cannons, loaded 
with grape and cannister, swept the hill-side with dreadful 
effect. 

Stark's white horse fell in less than ten minutes after his 
gallant rider came under fire, but on foot, with his hat in 
one hand, and his saber in the other, he kept at the head of 
his men, who, without flinching a single foot, urged their 
way up the little hill. Brave Parson Allen, with a clubbed 
musket, Avas seen amid the smoke, fighting in the front 
platoon of his company. The whole field was a volcano of 
fire. Stark, in his official report, says that the two forces 
were within a few yards of each other, and " the roaring of 
their guns was like a continuous clap of thunder !" The 



812 Historical and 

Hessian and British regulars, awustomed to liard-fought 
fields, held their ground stubbornly and bravely. For more 
than two hours the battle hung in even scale. At length, 
Baume ordered a charge ; at that instant he fell, mortally 
wounded, and his men charging forward, broke their ranks 
in such a manner, that the Americans succeeded, after a 
fierce hand to hand fight, in entering the intrenchments. 

Stark shouted to his men, " Forward, boys, charge them 
home I" and his troops, maddened by the conflict, swept the 
hill with irresistible valor. They pushed forward Without 
discipline or order, seized the artillery, and gave chase to the 
flying enemy. The field being won, plunder became the 
object of the militia. 

The guns, sabres, stores and equipments of the defeated 
foe were being gathered up, when Col. Breymaii, with five 
hundred men, suddenly appeared upon the field. He had 
been sent by Burgoyne to re-inforce Baume, but the lieavy 
rain had prevented his men from marching at a rapid rate. 
The flying troops instantly rallied and joined the new array, 
which speedily assumed an order of battle, and began to press 
the scattered forces of the patriots. This was a critical 
period. Stark put forth every effort to rally his men, but 
they were exhausted, scattered, and nearly out of ammuni- 
tion. It seemed as if the fortune of the day was in the 
royal hands, when from the edge of a strip of forest, half a 
mile off", came a loud and genuine American cheer. Stark 
turned, and beheld emerging from the wood, the Berkshire 
regiment, under Colonel Warner. This body of men, also 
delayed by the rain, after a forced march, had just reached 
the battle field, panting for a share in the aff'ray. General 
Stark hastened to the captain of the foremost company, and 
ordered him to lead his men to the charge at once. But the 
captain cooly asked, " Where's the colonel ? I want to see 
Colonel Warner before I move." The colonel was sent for, 
and the redoubtable captain, drawing himself up, said, with 
the nasal twang peculiar to the puritans of old, "Naow, 
Kernal, what d'ye want me tu dew?" '-Drive those 
red-coats from the hill yonder," was the answer. "Wall, it 
shall be done," said the captain, and issuing the necessary 
orders, he led his men to the charge without a moment's 
hesitation. 



Eevolutionary Ixcidents. * 313 

Said an eye-witness, afterwards, " The last we saw of 
Warner's regiment for half an hour, was when they entered 
the smoke and fire about half way up the hill." Stark with 
a portion of his rallied troops supported the Berkshire men, 
and the royal forces were defeated, after a close contest. A 
portion of them escaped, but seven hundred men and officers 
were taken prisoners, among the latter Colonel Baume, who 
soon died of his wound. 

The British lost two hundred and seven men killed, and a 
large number wounded. Of the Americans, about one hun- 
dred were killed and the same number wounded The spoils 
consisted of four pieces of cannon, several hundred stand of 
excellent muskets, two hundred and fifty dragoon swords, 
eight brass drums, and four wagons laden with stores, cloth- 
ing and ammunition. 

This victory severely crippled Burgoyne, and discouraged 
his army, while it enlivened the Americans from one extent 
of the country to the other. It taught the British troops to 
respect the American militia, and it was a brilliant precursor 
to the victories of Saratoga and Bemis' Hights. 

Congress voted thanks to General Stark and his brave 
troops for their great victory, and took measures to push on 
the war with renewed energy and hope. 

" But the joke of "or Molly Stark's a widow," is not the 
only fun indulged in at this period, by " Sam," and at the 
expense too of " the magnificent army of Burgoyne." This 
pompous and important person had just before issued the 
following conciliatory document : 

PROCLAMATION. 

By John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majes- 
ty^ s armies in America, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of 
Light Dragoons, Governor of Fort William, in North 
Britain, one of the Representatives of the Commons of Great 
Britain, and commanding an army and fleet employed on 
an Expedition from Canada, etc., etc., etc. 

The forces entrusted to my command are designed to act 
in concert, and upon a common principle, with the numerous 
armies and fleets which already display in every quarter of 

27 



314 * Historical and 

America the power, the justice, and, when properly sought, 
the mercy of the king. 

The cause in which the British army is thus exerted, 
applies to the most affecting interests of the human heart ; 
and the military servants of the crown, at first called forth 
for the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the constitu- 
tion, now combine with love of their country and duty to 
their sovereign, the other extensive incitements, which form 
a due sense of the general privileges of mankind. To the 
eyes and ears of the temperate part of the public, and the 
breasts of suffering thousands in the provinces, be the melan- 
choly appeal, whether the present unnatural rebellion has 
not been made a foundation for the com pie test system of 
tyranny that ever God, in his displeasure, suffered for a time 
to be exercised over a stubborn and froward generation. 

Arbitrary imprisonment, confiscation of property, persecu- 
tion and torture, unprecedented in the inquisition of the 
Romish church, are among the palpable enormities that 
verify the affirmative. These are inflicted by assemblies and 
committees who dare to profess themselves friends to liberty, 
upon the most quiet subjects, without distinction of age or 
sex, for the sole crime, often for the sole suspicion, of having 
adhered in principle to the government under which they 
were born, and to which, by every tie, divine and human, 
they owe allegiance. To consummate these shocking pro- 
ceedings, the profanation of religion is added to the most 
profligate prostitution of common reason — the consciences of 
men are set at naught, and multitudes are not only compelled 
to bear arms, but also to swear subjection to a usurpation 
they abhor. 

Animated by these considerations — at the head of troops 
in the full powers of health, discipline and valor — determined 
to strike where necessary, and anxious to spare where possible 
— I, by these presents, invite and exhort all persons, in all 
places whither the progress of this army may point — and, by 
the blessing of God, I will extend it far — to maintain such 
a conduct as may justify me in protecting their lands, habi- 
tations and families. The intention of this address is tc 
hold forth security, not degradation, to the country. Tc 
those whom spirit and principle may indue to partake the 
glorious task of redeeming their countrymen from dangers^ 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 315 

and re-establishing the blessings of legal government, I offer 
encouragement and employment ; and upon the first intelli- 
gence of their association, I will find means to assist their 
undertakings. The domestic, the industrious, the infirm, 
and even the timid inhabitants, I am desirous to protect, 
provided they remain quietly at their houses — that they do 
not suffer their cattle to be removed, nor their corn or forage 
to be secreted or destroyed — that they do not break up their 
bridges or roads, nor by any other act, directly or indirectly, 
endeavor to obstruct the operations of the king's troops, or 
supply or assist those of the enemy. 

Every species of provisions brought to my camp will be 
paid for at an equitable rate, and in solid coin. 

In consciousness of Christianity, my royal master's clem- 
ency, and the honor of soldiership, I have dwelt .upon this 
invitation, and wished for more persuasive terms to give it 
impression. And let not people be led to disregard it by 
considering their distance from the immediate situation of 
my camp. I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces 
under my direction — and they amount to thousands — to 
overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. 
I consider them the same wherever they may lurk. 

If, notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere inclinations 
to effect them, the frenzy of hostility should remain, I trust 
I shall stand acquitted in the eyes of God and men, in 
denouncing and executing the vengeance of the State against 
the willful outcasts. The messengers of justice and of wrath 
await them in the field ; and devastation, famine, and every 
concommitant horror that a reluctant but indispensable 
prosecution of military duty must occasion, will bar the way 
to their return. 

JOHN BUEGOYNE. 
Oamp at Ticonderoga, July 2, 1777. 

By order of his excellency, the Lieutenant General : 

Egbert Kingston, Secretary. 

Now hear " Sam's" answer through one of his chosen 
sons, to this facetious pronunciaraento ! It is a veritable 
document of the " olden time," which the children of " Sam," 
during this or the last generation, have had no opportunity 
of perusing" v 



316 Historical and 



% John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of his Majesty's 
armies, in America, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of light 
dragoons. Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one 
of the Representatives of the Commons of Great Britain, and 
commanding an army and fleet employed on an Expedition 
from Canada, etc., etc. etc. 

Most High, Most Mighty, Most Puissant, and Most Sub- 
lime General: — When the forces under your command 
•arrived at Quebec, in order to act in concert, and upon a 
common j^rinciple, with the numerous fleets and armies which 
already display in every quarter of America, the justice and 
mercy of your king, we, the reptiles of America, were struck 
with unusual trepidation and astonishment. But what words 
can express the plentitude of our horror, when the Colonel 
of the Queen's regiment of light dragoons advanced toward 
Ticonderoga. The mountains shook before thee, and the 
trees of the forest bowed their lofty heads — the vast lakes 
of the north were chilled at thy presence, and the mighty 
cataracts stopped their tremendous career, and were suspended 
in awe at thy approach. Judge, then, Oh! Ineffable Gov- 
ernor of Fort William, in North Britain, what must have 
been the terror, dismay, and despair that overspread this 
paltry continent of America, and us, its wretched inhabitants. 
Dark and dreary, indeed, was the prospect before us, till, 
like the sun in the horizon, your most gracious, sublime, and 
irresistible proclamation, opened the doors of mercy, and 
snatched us, as it were, from the jaws of annihilation. 

We foolishly thought, blind as w^e were, that your gracious 
master's fleets and armies were come to destroy us and our 
liberties ; but we are happy in hearing from you (and who 
can doubt what you assert ?) that they were called forth for 
the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the Constitution 
to a froward and stubborn generation. 

And is it for this, ! Sublime Lieutenant-General, that 
you have given yourself the trouble to cross the wide Atlantic, 
and with incredible fatigue traverse uncultivated wilds? 
And we ungratefully refuse the proffered blessing? To 
restore the rights of the Constitution, you have called 
together' an amiable host of savages, and turned them loose 
to scalp our women and children, and lay our country waste — ■ 



Revolutionary Incidents, 317 

this tliey have performed with their usual skill and clem- 
ency, and yet ^we remain insensible of the benefit, and 
unthankful for so much goodness. 

Our Congress has declared Independence, and our Assem- 
blies, as your Highness justly observes, have most wickedly 
imprisoned the avowed friends of that power with which they 
are at war, and most profanely compelled those whose eon- 
sciences will not permit them to fight, to pay some small 
part toward the expenses their country is at, in supporting 
what is called a necessary defensive war. If we go on thus 
in our obstinacy and ingratitude, what can we expect, hut 
that you should, in your anger, give a stretch to the Indian 
forces under your direction, amounting to thousands, to over- 
take and destroy us ? or, which is ten tinjies worse, that you 
should withdraw your fleets and armies, and leave us to onr 
misery, without completing the benevolent task you have 
begun, of restoring to us the rights of the Constitution ? 

We submit — we submit — Most Puissant Colonel of the 
Queen's regiment of light dragoons, and Governor of Fort 
William, in North Britain. We offer our heads to the 
scalping-knife, and our bellies to the bayonet. Who can 
resist the force of your eloquence ? Who can withstand the 
terror of your arms ? The invitation you have made in the 
consciousness of Christianity, your royal master's clemency, 
and the horror of soldiership, we thankfully accept. The 
blood of the slain, the cries of injured virgins and innocent 
children, and the never-ceasing sighs and groans of starving 
wretches, now languishing in the jails and prison-ships of 
New York, call on us in vain, while your sublime procla- 
mation is sounded in our ears. Forgive us, ! our country ! 
Forgive us, dear posterity! Forgive us, all ye foreign 
powers, who are anxiously watching our conduct in this 
important struggle, if we yield implicitly to the persuasive 
tongue of the most elegant Colonel of her Majesty's regiment 
of light dragoons. 

Forbear, then, thou magnanimous Lieutenant-General ! 
Forbear to denounce vengeance against us. Forbear to give 
a stretch to those restorers of Constitutional rights, the Indian 
forces under your direction. Let not the messenger of justice 
and wrath await us in the field, and devastation, and' every 
concomitant horror, bar our return to the allegiance of a 
27* 



318 HiSTOEICAL AND 

prince, who, by liis royal will, would, deprive us of every bless- 
ing of life, with all possible clemency. 

We are domestic, we are industrious, we are infirm and 
timid ; we shall remain quietly at home, and not remove our 
cattle, our corn, our forage, in hope that you will come, at 
the head of your troops, in the full powers of health, disci- 
pline, and valor, and take charge of them yourselves. Behold 
our wives and daughters, our flocks and herds, our goods and 
chattels, are they not at the mercy of our Lord the King, 
and of his Lieutenant-General, member of the House of Com- 
mons, and Governor of Fort William, in North Britain ? 

A. B. 

CD. 

E. F., ETC., ETC., ETC. 

Saratoga, lOth July, 1777. 

" Sam" makes condescenamg proposals for a compromise with 
his haughty master, General Burgoyne, and asks him in 
philanthropical spirit, to be "as mild as he can!" 

Proposal for an exchange of General Burgoyne. Ascribed 
to his Excellency William Livingston, Esq., Governor of the 
State of New Jersey. 

Should the report of General Burgoyne having infringed 
the capitulation, between Major General Gates and himself, 
prove to be true, our superiors will doubtless take proper 
care to prevent his reaping any benefit from it ; and should 
he be detained as a prisoner, for his infraction of any of the 
articles, I would humbly propose to exchange him, in such a 
manner as will, at the same time, flatter his vanity and re- 
dound to the greatest emolument to America. To evince 
the reasonableness of my proposal, I would observe, that by 
the same parity of reason that a general is exchanged for a 
general, a colonel for a colonel, and so on with respect to 
other officers, mutually of equal rank, we ought to have for 
one and the same gentleman who shall happen to hold both 
these ofiices, both a general and a colonel. This will appear 
evident from the consideration that those exchanges are 
never regulated by viewing the persons exchanged in the 
light of men, but as ojffwers; since otherwise, a colonel might 
as well be exchanged for a sergeant as for an officer of his 



Eevolutioxary Incidents. 319 

own rank ; a sergeant being, undoubtedly, equally a man, and, 
as the case sometimes happens, more of a man too. One 
prisoner, therefore, having twenty different offices, ought to 
redeem from captivity twenty prisoners, aggregately holding 
the same offices ; or such greater or less number as shall, 
with respect to rank, be equal to his twenty offices. This 
being admitted, I think General Burgoyne is the most profit- 
able prisoner we could have taken, having more otfices, or, 
(what amounts to tlie same thing in Old England,) more 
titles, than any gentleman on this side the Ganges. And as 
his impetuom Excellency certainly meant to avail himself of 
his titles, by their pompous display in his proclamation, had 
he proved conqueror, it is but reasonable that we should avail 
ourselves of them, now he is conquered ; and, till I meet 
with a better project for that purpose, I persuade myself 
that the following proposal will appropriate them to a better 
use than they were ever applied to before. 
The exchange I propose is as follows : 

I. For John Burgoyne, Esquire. 

Some worthy justice of the peace, magnanimously stolen 
out of his bed, or taken from his farm by a band of ruffians 
in the uniform of British soldiery, and now probably perish- 
ing with hunger and cold in a loathsome jail in New York. 

II. For John Burgoyne, Lieutenant General of His Majesty^ s 
armies in America. 

Two Majors General. 

III. For John Burgoyne, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of 
lAght Diragoons. 

As the British troops naturally prize everything in pro- 
portion as it partakes of royalty, and undervalue whatever 
originates from a Republican government, I suppose a colonel 
of Her Majesty's oivn regiment will procure at least three 
Continental Colonels of horse. 

IV. For John Burgoyne, Governor of Fort William, in 
North Britain. 

Here I would demand one governor of one of the United 
States, as his multitulary excellence is governor of a fort, and 
two more, as that fort is in North Britain, which his Brit- 
tanic majesty may be presumed to value in that proportion ; 
but considering that the said fort is called William, which 
may excite in his majesty's mind the rebellious idea of liberty, 



320 Historical and 

I deduct one on that account, and, rather than puzzle the 
cartel with any perplexity, I am content with two governors, 

V. For John Burgoyne, one of the Kepresentatives of 
Great Britain. 

The first memher of Congress who may fall into the 
enemy's hands. 

VI. For John Burgoyne, Commander of a fleet employed in 
an expedition from Canada. 

The Admiral of our navy. 

VII. For John Burgoyne, Commander of an army employed 
in an expedition from Canada. 

One Commander-in-Chief in any of our departments. 

VIII. For John Burgoyne, etc., etc., etc. 

Some connoisseurs in hieroglyphics imagine that these 
three et ceteras are emblematical of three certain occult 
qualities of the general, which he never intends to exhibit 
in more legible characters, viz : prudence, modesty, and 
humanity. Others suppose that they stand for king 0/ America, 
and that, had he proved successful, he would have fallen 
upon General Howe, and afterwards have set up for himself. 
Be this as it may, (which it, however, behooves a certain 
gentleman on the other side the water seriously to consider,) 
I insist upon it, that as all dark and cabalistical characters 
are suspicious, these incognoscible enigmas may portend much 
more than is generally apprehended. At all events, General 
Burgoyne has availed himself of their importance, and I 
doubt not they excited as much terror in his proclamation as 
any of his more luminous titles. As his person, therefore, 
is by the capture, become the property of the Congress, all 
his titles, (which some suppose to constitute his very essence,) 
whether more splendid or opaque, latent or visible, are become, 
ipso facto, the lawful goods and chattels of the Continent, 
and ought not to be restored without a considerable equivalent. 
If we should happen to overrate them, it is his own fault, it 
being in his power to ascertain their intrinsic value, and it 
is a rule in law, that wdien a man is possessed of evidence to 
disprove what is alleged against him, and refuses to produce 
it, the presumption raised against him is to be taken for 
granted. Certain it is, that these three et ceteras must 
stand for three somethings, and as these three somethinga 
must, at least, be equal to three somethings without rank 01 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 821 

title, I had some thouglits of setting them down for three 
privates; but then, as they are three somethings in General 
Burgoyne, which must be of twice the value of three any- 
things in any three privates, I shall only double them, and 
demand in exchange for these three problematical, enigmati- 
cal, hieroglyphical, mystic, necromantical, cabalistical, and 
portentious et ceteras, six privates. 

So that, according to my plan, we ought to detain this 
ideal conqueror of the North, now a real prisoner in the East, 
till we have got in exchange for him, one esquire, two majors- 
general, three colonels of light horse, two governors, one 
member of Congress, the admiral of one navy, one com- 
mander-in-chief in a separate department, and six privates ; 
which is probably more than this extraordinary hero would 
fetch in any part of Great Britain, were he exposed at public 
auction for a year and a day. All which is nevertheless, 
humbly submitted to the consideration of the honorable, the 
Congress, and his excellency. General Washington. 

Princeton, December Sth, 1777. 

In order that good jokes may not go abroad without com- 
pany we append the following, which are quite equally 
expressive of the spirit of the times of which wo treat : 

RE\nNISCENCES. 

BOSTON LESS THAN A CENTURY AGO. 

Dress, etc. — Seventy years ago cocked hats, wigs, and red 
cloaks, were the usual dress of gentlemen — boots were rarely 
seen, except among military men. Shoe-strings were worn 
only by those who could not afford to buy buckles. In winter, 
round coats were used, made stiff with buckram — they came 
down to the knees in front. 

Before the Revolution, boys wore wigs and cocked hats ; 
and boys of genteel families wore cocked hats till within the 
last thirty years. 

Ball-dress for gentlemen was silk coat, and breeches of the 
same, and embroidered waistcoats — sometimes white satin 
breeches. Buckles were fashionable till within the last fifteen 
or twenty years, and a man could not have remained in a 
ball-room with shoe-strings. It was usual for the bridegroom 



322 HiSTOEICAL AND 

and maids, and men attending, to go to churcli together 
three successive Sundays after the wedding, with a change 
of dress each day. A gentleman who deceased not long since, 
appeared the first Sunday in white broadcloth, the second in 
blue and gold, the third in peach bloom, pearl buttons. It 
was a custom to hang the escutcheon of a deceased head of 
a family out of a window over the front door, from the time 
of his decease until after his funeral. The last instance 
Mfhich is remembered of this, was in the case of Gov. Han- 
cock's uncle, 1764. Copies of the escutcheon, painted on 
black silk, were more anciently distributed among the pall- 
bearers, rings afterward — and, until within a few years, gloves. 
Dr. A. Elliott had a mug full of rings which were presented to 
him at funerals. Till within twenty years, gentlemen wore 
powder, and many of them sat from thirty to forty minutes 
under the barber's hand, to have their hair cropped ; suffer- 
ing no inconsiderable pain from hair-pulling, and sometimes 
from hot tongs. Crape cushions and hoops were indispensable 
in full dress, until within thirty years. Sometimes ladies 
were dressed the day before the party and slept in easy chairs, 
to keep their hair in fit condition for the following night. 
Most ladies went to parties on foot, if they could not get a 
Ciist in a friend's carriage or chaise. Gentlemen rarely had 
a chance to ride. 

The latest dinner hour was two o'clock ; some ofiicers of 
the colonial government dined later occasionally. In genteel 
families, ladies went to drink tea about four o'clock, and 
rarely stayed after candle-light in summer. It was the 
fashion for ladies to propose to visit — not to be sent for. 
The drinking of punch in the forenoon, in public houses, was 
a common practice with the most respectable men, till about 
five and twenty years ; and evening clubs were very common. 
The latter, it is said, were more common formerly, as this 
afforded the means of communion on the state of the country. 
Dinner parties were very rare. Wine was very little in use ; 
convivial parties drank punch or toddy. Half boots came 
into use about thirty years ago. The first pair that appeared 
in Boston were worn by a young gentleman, who came here 
from New York, and who was more remarkable for his boots 
than anything else. Within twenty years, gentlemen wore 
scarlet coats, with black velvet collars and very costly buttons, 



Revolutionary Incidents. 328 

of mock pearl, cut steel, or painted glass — and neckcloths 
'edged with lace, and laced ruffles over the hands. Before 
the Revolution, from five to six hundred pounds was the 
utmost of annual expenditure in those families where carriages, 
and corresponding domestics were kept. There were only 
two or three carriages, that is chariots or coaches, in 1750. 
Chaises on four wheels, not phsetons, were in use in families 
of distinction. 

The history of the Liberty-Tree is said to be this : That a 
certain Capt. Mcintosh illuminated the tree, and hung upon 
it effigies of obnoxious characters, and that these were taken 
down by the liberty boys and burnt, and the tree thus got 
its name. 

The Popes. — A stage was erected on wheels — on this stage 
was placed a figure in the chair, called the pope ; behind him, 
a female figure, in the attitude of dancing, whom they called 
Nancy Dawson ; behind her Admiral Byng, hanging on a 
gallows ; and behind him the devil. A similar composition 
was made at the South-end, called South-end pope. In the 
daytime the processions, each drawing with them their popes 
and their attendants, met and passed each other, on the mill 
or draw-bridge, very civilly ; but in the evening, they met 
at the same point, and a battle ensued with fists, sticks and 
stones ; and one or the other of the popes was captured. 
The North-end pope was never taken but once, and then the 
captain had been early wounded and taken from the field. 
The pope conflicts were held in memory of the powder-plot 
of Nov. 5, and were some sort of imitation of what was done 
in England on the same anniversary. 

A man used to ride on an ass, with immense jackboots, 
and his face covered with a horrible mask, and was called, 
Joyce Jr. His office was to assemble men and boys, in mob 
style, and ride in the middle of them, and in such company 
to terrify the adherents to the royal government, before the 
Revolution. The tumult which resulted in the massacre of 
1770, was excited by such means. Joyce, junior, was said to 
have a particular whistle, which brought his adherents, etc., 
whenever they were wanted. 

About 1730 to 1740, there was no meat market; there 
were only three or four shops in which fresh meat was sold — 
one of them was the corner of State street and Gornhill, 



324 Historical and 

where Mr. Hartshorn now keeps. Gentlemen used to go the 
day before, and have their names put down for what they^ 
wanted. Outside of this shop was a large hook, on which 
carcasses used to hang. A little man, who was a justice of 
the peace, came one day for meat, but came too late. He 
was disappointed, and asked to whom such and such pieces 
were to go? One of them was to go to a tradesman; (it waa 
not a common thing in those days, for tradesmen to eat fresh 
meat,) the justice went out, saying he would send the trades- 
man a salad for his lamb. He sent an overdue and unpaid 
tax-bill. Soon after, the tradesman met the justice near 
this place, and told him he would repay his kindness ; which 
he did, by hanging the justice up by the waistband of hia 
breeches to the butcher's hook, and leaving him to get down 
as he could. 

TARRING AND FEATHERING ORIGINALLY A YANKEE TRICK. 

From the American Mercury. 

This appears from the speech of McFingal, the Tory Saga- 
more, to the Yankee mob: 

" Was there a Yankee trick ye knew, 
They did not play as well as you ? 
Did they not lay their heads together, 
And gain ymir art to tar and feather V 

TARRING AND FEATHERING LAWFUL ! 

This appears, by the authority of the sentence which was 
pronounced on McFingal. This sentence, be it remembered, 
though seemingly an order and decree of a committee, in 
factjhad its origin in the brain of a man who was a judge 
of the Supreme Court of the State of Connecticut. Whether 
appointed judge from this specimen of his judicial knowledge, 
or not, is not now in question ; but let us hear the sentence- 
on McFingal, king of the Tories. 

" Meanwhile, beside the pole, the guard 
A bench of justice had prepared, 
Where, sitting round in awful sort, 
The grand committee hold the Court ; 
While all the crew in silent awe, 
Wait from their lips the lore of law. 
Few moments with deliberation, 
They hold the solemn consultation. 



Revolutionary Incidents. S25 

When soon in judgment all agree, 
And clerk declares the dread decree 

" That Squire McFingal, having grown. 
The vilest Tory in the town, 
And now, on full examination, 
Convicted by his own confession. 
Finding no token of repentance, 
This Court proceed to render sentence : 
That first, the mob, a slip-knot single, 
Tie round the neck of said McFingal ; 
And in due form do tar him next, 
And feather, as the laiv directs: 
Then through the town attendant ride him 
In cart, with constable beside him, 
And having held him up to shame. 
Bring to the pole, from whence he came." 

Vision and prediction of McFingal, king of the Tories, 
« hen in coat of tar and feathers : 

" Tar, yet in embryo in pine, 
Shall run, on Tories' back to shine; 
Trees rooted fair in groves of fallows, 
Are growing for our future gallows ; 
And geese unhatched, when plucked in fray, 
Shall rue the feathering of that day." 

In order to show that there may be two sides to every 
question, we give also, the confession of a rank Tory of this 
period, which goes far to exhibit the origin of the Lynch 
law, in a somewhat palliative light. " Sam," it will be per- 
ceived, has never licensed Lynch law, from the beginning: 
but that its possibility constitutes one of the facetiae of his 
moods, the detail of provocations in this extract will clearly 
show. 

CAPTAIX WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. 

The following is copied from the American Apollo, No. 7, 
Vol. 1, Friday, February 17, 1792, printed at Boston, by 
Belknap & Young, State street, (a weekly paper, in the form 
of a pamphlet,) : 

The Life, Confession, and last Dying Words of Captain Wil- 
liam Cunningham, formerly British Provost Marshal in the 
city of New York, who was executed in London, the 10th 
of August, 1791. 

I, William Cunningham, was born in Dublin Barracks, in 
the year 1738. My father was trumpeter to the Blue Dra- 
goons, and at the age of eight I was placed with an officer as 
28 



826 " HiSTOEICAL AND 

his servant, in which station I continued until I was sixteen,, 
and, being a great proficient in horsemanship, was taken as' 
an assistant to the riding-master of the troops, and in the 
year 1761, was made sergeant of dragoons; but the peace 
coming the year after, I was disbanded. Being bred to na 
profession, I took up with a woman who kept a gin-shop in a 
blind alley, near the Coal Quay ; but the house being searched 
for stolen goods, and my dosy taken to Newgate, I thought it. 
most prudent to decamp. Accordingly I set off for the North, 
and arrived at Drogheda, where, in a few months after, I 
married the daughter of an epcciseman, by whom I had 
three sons. 

About the year 1772, we removed to Newry, where I com- 
menced the profession of a scow-banker, which is that of 
enticing the mechanics and country people to ship themselves, 
for America ; they are sold or obliged to serve a term of years 
for their passage. I embarked at Newry in the ship Need- 
ham, for New York, and arrived at that port the 4th day of 
August, 1774, with some indented servants I kidnapped in 
Ireland ; but these were liberated in New York on account of 
the bad usage they received from me during the passage. In 
that city I followed the profession of breaking horses, and 
teaching ladies and gentlemen to ride, but rendering myself 
obnoxious to the citizens in their infant struggle for freedom, 
I was obliged to fly on board the Asia man-of-war, and from 
thence to Boston, where my own opposition to the measures 
pursued by the Americans in support of their rights, was the 
first thing that recommended me to the notice of General 
Gage, and when the war commenced I was appointed Provost 
Marshal to the royal army, which placed me in a situation to 
wreak my vengeance on the Americans. I shudder to think 
of the murders 1 have been accessory to, l)oth with and with- 
out orders from Government, especially while in New York — 
during which time there were more than two thousand prison- 
ers starved in the different churches, by stopping their 
rations, which I sold. 

There were also two hundred and seventy-five American 
prisoners and obnoxious persons executed, out of all which 
number there were only about one dozen public executions, 
which chiefly consisted of British and Hessian deserters. The 
mode for private executions was tb" s conducted : A guard. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 327 

was despatclied from the provost, ahout half-past twelve at 
night, to the barracks street, and the neighborhood of the 
upper barracks, to order the people to shut their window 
shutters and to put out their lights, forbidding them, at the 
same time, to presume to look out of their windows and 
doors, on pain of death ; after which, the unfortunate prison- 
ers were conducted, gagged, just behind the upper barracks, 
and hung without ceremony, and then buried by the black 
pioneer of the provost. 

At the end of the war, I returned to England with the 
army, and settled in Wales, as being a cheaper place of living 
than in any of the populous cities, but being at length per- 
suaded to go to London, I entered so warmly into the dissi- 
pations of that capital, that I soon found my circumstances 
much embarrassed. To relieve which I mortgaged my half 
pay to an army agent, but that being soon expended, I forged 
a draft for three hundred pounds sterling, on the Board of 
Ordnance, but being detected in presenting it for acceptance, 
I was apprehended, tried, and convicted — and for that offense 
am here to suffer an ignominious death. 

I beg the pardon of all good Christians, and also pardon 
and forgiveness of God, for the many horrid murders I have 
been accessory to. 

William Cunningham. 

The disastrous defeat of Burgoyne, with the details and 
consequences of which our readers are already sufficiently 
familiar, had been immediately preceded by a regular influx 
of foreign adventurers, comprising every stamp of the true 
Condittori, which at that time swarmed throughout the coun- 
tries of Europe. They came here like the plagues of Egypt, 
with insolent buzzings around the doors of Congress, insti- 
gated by the too easy promises of Deane, and gave occasion, 
finally, to one of the most bitter letters ever written by Wash- 
ington, who, goaded, like some noble animal by gad-flies, 
besought Congress to rid him of these endless swarms. De 
Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and the enthusiastic Lafayette, were 
of course exceptions. Enthusiasm and the accident of birth, 
which gave him court influence at Paris, seem always to have 
l»e6n laov^e the merit of the last, than talent — much as he 



.^28 Historical and 

has been lauded and almost deified. Nevertheless, Washing- 
ton — the then representative of " Sam" — saw his uses, and 
loved him as an excellent man, as he undoubtedly was. He 
proved of great use through his disinterested interest in our 
cause, in conciliating toward us and bringing about our 
treaty with France — which, by the way, it was not a whit 
more to our interest than than it should never have been 
formed. 

At the commencement of the war, the aid of foreign officers 
had been thought highly desirable, especially in the depart- 
ments of artillery and engineering, in which there was a 
great deficiency of native skill and science. It was one part 
of Deane's commission to engaffe a few officers of this 
description, a matter in which he had gone a good deal 
beyond his instructions. Beset with endless solicitations, to 
which the fear of giving offense, and the hope of securing 
influence, induced him too often to yield, he had sent out not 
less than fifty officers of all ranks, to whom he had made 
extravagant promises of promotion, which occasioned great 
discontent among the native officers, and no little embarrass- 
ment to Congress. Greene, Sullivan, and Knox, in a joint 
letter, a few weeks before Washington's visit to Congress, 
had threatened to resign if a certain M. Du Coudray were 
promoted to the command of the artillery, with the rank of 
major general, agreeably to a contract which Deane had 
signed with him, in consideration of certain supplies which 
he had furnished. Congress, with a just sense of its dignity, 
voted this letter of the generals "an attempt to influence 
their decision, an invasion of the liberties of the people, and 
indicating a want of confidence in the justice of Congress," 
for which the writers were required to make an apology. 
Having consented to serve for the present as a volunteer, 
with a merely nominal rank, Du Coudray was drowned shortly 
after in crossing the Schuylkill. 

There was, indeed, among the American officers excessive 
jealousy and great heart-burnings on the subject of rank, 
precedence and command, not only as to foreigners, but as to 
each other. Congress professed to be governed in its promo- 
tions by the complex considerations of former rank, merito- 
rious service, and the number of troops raised by the States 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 329 

to which the officers respectively belonged. But the officers 
imagined, and not always without reason, that intrigue and 
personal favor had quite as much influence. 

Among the contracts made by Deane was one with Du 
Portail, La Kadidre, and Du Govion, three engineer officers 
of merit, recommended by the French court, who were now 
placed at the head of the engineer department, thus com- 
pleting the organization of the new army. Kosciusko, whose 
entry of the service has been already mentioned, was appointed 
■engineer for the northern department. 

% The Count Pulaski, who had already gained distinction in 
Europe by his attempts to resist the first partition of Poland, 
had just arrived in America, and had offered his services to 
Congi-ess. 

The foreign officers above named were persons of merit ; 
but too large a proportion of those who came to seek com- 
missions in America, whether sent by Deane, or adventurers 
on their own account, even some who brought high recom- 
mendations, were remarkable fcr nothing but extravagant self- 
conceit, and boundless demands for rank, command, and pay. 

Of a very diiferent character was the Marquis de Lafayette, 
a youth of nineteen, belonging to one of the most illustrious 
families of France, who had just arrived in America, and 
whom General Washington now met at Philadelphia for the 
first time. Like all other French nobles of that day, he had 
received a military education, and held a commission in the 
French army. In garrison at Metz, he had been present at 
■an entertainment given by the governor of that city to the 
Duke of Gloucester, brother of the British king, and on that 
occasion, from the duke's lips, he first heard the story of the 
American rebellion. His youthful fancy was fired by the 
idea of this transatlantic struggle for liberty, and, though 
master of an ample fortune, and married to a wife whom he 
tenderly loved, he resolved at once to adventure in it. For 
that purpose he opened a communication with Deane. His 
intention becoming known, the French court, which still kept 
up the forms of neutrality, forbade him to go. But he 
secretly purchased a ship, which Deane loaded with military 
stores, and set sail at a moment when the news of the loss 
of New York and the retreat through the Jerseys made most 
foreigners despair of the American cause. The French court 
28* 



330 Historical and 

sent orders to the West Indies to intercept him ; hut he sailed 
directly for the United States, arrived in safety, presented 
himself to Congress, and offered to serve as a volunteer,, 
without pay. Admiring his disinterestedness not less than 
his zeal, and not uninfluenced by his rank and connections,. 
Congress gave him the commission of major general, which 
Dean had promised ; but, for the present, content with the 
rank without any command, he entered the military family 
of Washington, for whom he soon contracted a warm and 
lasting friendship, which Washington as warmly returned. 
La Fayette brought with him eleven other ofiicers ; among • 
them the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran, presently com- 
missioned as major general. 

The unsuccessful battles of Brandywine and Germantown, 
which soon followed, brought into rather singular contrast, 
the military reputations of Washington and the English 
renegade, Gates, who commanded at the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. The terrible winter of 1777, had been passed by 
Washington's miserable army, at Valley Forge, amidst the 
extremes of suffering, from privations of every kind, when 
there at once appears to be a formidable cabal on hand, for 
supplanting him, in favor of the mediocre adventurer. Gates. 
Here is Hildreth's account of this infamous cabal. 

While Washington was exerting himself to the utmost, to 
preserve the arnly from total disorganization, a project was 
on foot to remove him from the chief command. Several 
persons, conspicuous in Congress and the army, were more 
or less concerned in this movement ; but most of the inform- 
ation respecting it, has been carefully suppressed, and its 
history is involved in some obscurity. Every biographer has 
been very anxious to shield his special hero, from the charge 
of participation in this affair, indignantly stigmatized, by 
most writers, as a base intrigue. Yet doubts, at that time, 
as to Washington's fitness for the chief command, though 
th(^j might evince prejudice or a lack of sound judgment, 
do not necessarily imply either selfish ends or a malicious 
disposition. The Washington of that day was not Washing- 
ton as we know him, tried and proved by twenty years of 
the most disinterested and most successful public services. 
As yet, he had been in command but little more than two 
years, during which, he had suffered, with some slight 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 331 

exceptions, a continued series of losses and defeats. He had 
recovered Boston, to be sure, but had lost New York, New- 
port, and Philadelphia. He had been completely successful 
at Trenton, and partially so at Princeton, but had been 
beaten, with heavy loss, on Long Island and at Fort Wash- 
ington, and lately, in two pitched battles, on ground of his 
own choosing, at Brandywine and Germantown. What a 
contrast to the battles of Behmis' Hights, and the capture 
of Burgoyne's whole army ! Want of success, and sectional 
and personal prejudices, had created a party in Congress 
against Schuyler and against Sullivan. Could Washington 
escape the common fate of those who lose ? Eichard Henry 
Lee and Samuel Adams seem to have been the leaders of a 
party gradually formed in Congress, and for some time 
strong enough to exercise a material influence on its action^ 
which ascribed to the commander-in-chief a lack of vigor 
and energy, and a system of favoritism deleterious to the- 
public service. The Pennsylvanians were much annoyed at 
the loss of Philadelpliia ; and several leading persons in that 
State, seem to have co-operated with this party, especially 
Mifflin — a plausible, judicious, energetic, ambitious man^ 
very popular and very influential, but of whose recent man- 
agement of the quarter-master's department, Washington 
had loudly complained. Nor were other malcontents want- 
ing in the army. The marked confidence which Washington 
reposed in Greene, gave offense to some ; others had purposes 
of their own to serve. Conway aspired to the ofiice of 
inspector-general, the establishment of which he had sug- 
gested ; and, not finding his pretensions favored by Wash- 
ington, he indulged in very free criticisms on the state of 
the troops, and the incapacity of the commander-in-chief. 
Gates, who might aspire, since his sucesses at the north, to 
the most elevated station, should the post of commander-in- 
chief become vacant, had lately behaved toward Washington 
with marked coldness and neglect. A correspondence, highly 
derogatory to Washington's military character, was carried 
on between Gates, Mitflin, and Conway. By the indiscretion 
of the youthful Wilkinson, who talked rather too freely over 
his cups, at Sterling's quarters, when on his way to Congress 
with the news of Burgoyne's surrender, a pointed sentence 
from one of Conway's letters to Gates leaked out, and waa 



332 Historical and 

communicated by Sterling to Washington, who inclosed it in 
a note to Conway. Suspecting that Hamilton, during his 
visit to Albany, had, as he expressed it, " stealingly copied " 
Conway's letter. Gates demanded to know, in very hio-h 
terms, by what breach of confidence Washington had become 
possessed of the extract. When Wilkinson was given as the 
authority, he changed his ground, and, in an elaborate letter, 
alleged that the pretended extract was a forgery, and that 
"Conway had written nothing of the sort. Conway's letter, 
however, was not produced ; and to Washington's sarcastic 
•allusion to that fact, and to the manifest discrepancy between 
his first and second letters. Gates, anxious to hush up the 
matter, made a very tame and submissive answer. 

In the composition of the new Board of war, the influence 
of the party opposed to Washington became very apparent. 
Gates was made president of it, and Mifflin a member. The 
other members were Pickering, who resigned for that pur- 
pose his ofl&ce of adjutant-general, Joseph Trumbull, the late 
commissary-general, and Eichard Peterti, secretary of the old 
Board. Harrison, Washington's secretary, was elected, but 
declined. In spite of Washington's earnest remonstrances, 
Conway, promoted over the heads of all the brigadiers to the 
rank of major-general, was made inspector of the armies of 
the United States. An attempt was also made, but without 
success, to gain over La Fayette, by offering him the com- 
mand of an expedition against Canada. Beside these open 
measures, calculated to disgust Washington, and to cause 
him to resign, secret intrigues were resorted to, of a very dis- 
reputable character. Anonymous letters, criticising Wash- 
ington's conduct of the war, were addressed to Patrick Henry, 
governor of Virginia, and to Laurens, president of Congress ; 
but these gentlemen, in the true spirit of honorable candor, 
at once inclosed these letters to Washington. One of them, 
Washington ascribed to Dr. Eush. 

When these intrigues became known in the army, they 
produced among the officers a great burst of indignation. 
Nor did the idea of a new commander-in-chief find any sup- 
port in the State Legislatures or the public mind. In spite 
of losses, the inevitable result of insufficient means, Wash- 
ington was firmly rooted in the respect and affection of the 
soldiers and the people, who had not failed tc perceive and 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 333- 

to appreciate hie incomparable qualifications for tlie station 
which he lield. Seeing how strongly the country and the 
army were against them, most of the parties concerned in 
the late project for a new commander-in-chief denied or con- 
cealed as much as possible, their participation in it ; and the 
result served at once to evince and to strengthen the hold of 
Washington on the general confidence. (1778.) 

Being presently ordered to the northern department, Con- 
way sent a letter to Congress, in which he complained of ill- 
treatment in being thus banished from the scene of action, 
and offered to resign. Very contrary to his intention, he 
was taken at his word. All his attempts to get the vote 
reconsidered were in vain. He was wounded soon after in a 
duel with General Cadwallader, who had accused him of cow- 
ardice at the battle of Brandywine ; and, supposing himself 
near his end, he sent a humble apology to Washington. On 
his recovery he returned to France. 

Gates was sent to the Highlands to superintend the new 
fortifications to be erected there. Both he and Mifflin ceased 
to act as members of the Board of War, and their place on 
it was ultimately supplied by two members of Congress, 
appointed to serve for short periods. 

Mifflin obtained leave to join the army again ; >but the 
other officers, not liking this intrusion on the part of one 
who had never held any command in the line, got up a 
charge against him, which was referred to a court of inquiry, 
of having mismanaged the quarter-master's department. 
The accounts and business of that department had been left 
in a good deal of confusion ; but there seems to have been 
no serious ground of charge against Mifflin. Finding him- 
self so unpopular with the officers, he presently resigned his 
commission of major-general ; but he continued to take an 
active and leading part in affairs, being presently appointed 
a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. 

The more Congress reflected on the terms of Burgoyne's 
capitulation, the less satisfactory those terms appeared. The 
troops of that army, transported to England, and placed in 
garrison there, would relieve just as many other men for 
service in America. Some cavils had begun to be raised 
about an alleged deficiency of cartouch-boxes surrendered, 
when an impatient letter from Burgoyne furnished a much 



S34 • Historical and 

more plausible pretext. The British general complained that 
proper accommodations had not been furnished to his oflBcers, 
and, in the vexation of the moment, incautiously alleged 
that the Americans had broken the convention. Catching 
eagerly at this hasty expression, which Congress chose to con- 
strue into a repudialion of the treaty by the very officer -who 
had made it, it was resolved to suspend the embarkation of 
the troops " till a distinct and explicit ratification of the con- 
vention of Saratoga shall be properly notified by the court 
of Great Britain." Nor could any remonstrances or expla- 
nations on the part "of Burgoyne, obtain any change or modi- 
fication in a policy founded, indeed, more on considerations of 
interest than of honor, and for which Burgoyne's letter had 
but served as a pretext. The transports which had arrived 
at Boston were ordered to depart. Burgoyne only, with one 
or two attendants, was suffered to go to England, on parole. 
Such was the end of this famous triumph, the capture of 
Burgoyne, and of the cabal to which it gave a head, which, had 
it proved successful, would have caused the first important 
triumph of '" Sam" to have been tile ruin of his people. 
Throwing their destinies into the hands of two military 
adventurers, as it would have done, it requires no prophet to 
foresee what disastrous consequences must have followed. 
Even so late as this year, 1778, we find the following signifi- 
cant letter from Washington, which affords a clear glimpse 
of the trials through which this heroic man was compelled to 
pass, in keeping together our unfortunate army : — 

Extract of a letter from General Washington, to Congress, 
dated Sead Quarters, Springfield, 20th Jime, 1780. 

*' The honorable the committee will have informed Con- 
gress, from time to time, of the measures which have been 
judged essential to be adopted for co-operating with the ar- 
mament expected from France, and of their requisitions to 
to the States in consequence. What the result of these has 
been I cannot determine, to my great anxiety, as no answers 
on the subject of them have been yet received. The period 
is come when we have every reason to expect the fleet will 
arrive— and yet, for want of this point of primary conse- 
quence, it is impossible for me to form or fix on a system of 
co-operation — I have no basis to act upon — and, of course, 



EEV0LUT10XAH^■ In'cidents. 335 

were this generous succour of our ally to arrive, I should 
find myself in the most awkward, embarrassing and painful 
situation. The general and the admiral, from the relation 
in which I stand, as soon as they ajjproach our coast, will re- 
quire of me a plan of the measures to be pursued ; and these 
ought, of right, to bo prepared ; but circumstanced as I am, 
I cannot give them conjectures. From these considerations, 
I have suggested to the committee, by a letter I had the 
honor of addressing them yesterday, the indispensable neces- 
sity of their writing again to the States, urging them to give 
immediate and precise information of the measures they 
have taken and of the result. The interest of the States, 
the honor and reputation of our councils, the justice and 
gratitude due our allies, a regard to myself — all require that 
I should, without delay, be enabled to ascertain and inform 
them what we can, or cannot undertake. There is a point 
which ought now to be determined, on which the success of 
all our future operations may depend, which for want of 
knowing our prospects, I am altogether at a loss what to do 
in. For fear of involving the fleet and army of our allies 
in circumstances which, if not seconded by us, would expose 
them to material inconvenience and hazard, I shall be com- 
pelled to suspend it, and the delay may be fatal to our 
hopes. 

Beside the embarrassments I have mentioned above, and 
on former occasions, there is another of a very painful and 
humiliating nature. We have no shirts, from the best in- 
quiry I can make, to distribute to the troops, when the whole 
are in great want, and when a great part of them are abso- 
lutely destitute of any at all. Their situation too with 
respect to summer overalls, I fear, is not likely to be much 
better. There are a great many on hand, it is said, in 
Springfield, but so indifferent in their quality as to be 
scarcely worth the expense of transportation and delivery. 
For the troops to be without clothing at any time, is highly 
injurious to the service and distressing to our feelings; but 
the want will be more peculiarly mortifying when they come 
to act with those of our allies. If it is possible, I have no 
doubt immediate measures will be taken to relieve their dis- 
tress. It is also most sincerely to be wished that there could 
be some supplies of clothing furnished for the officers. 



33.6 Historical and 

There are a great many whose condition is really miserable 
still, and in some instances it is the case with almost whole 
State lines. It would be well for their own sakes, and for 
the public good, if they could be furnished. When our 
friends come to co-operate with us, they will not be able to 
go on the common routine of duty, and if they should, they 
must be held, from their appearance, in low estimation. 

What a commentary does this manly letter furnish upon 
the petty and venal injustice of his cotemporary foes, toward 
one of the greatest of all the characters of history ! 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan — The Non-resistant Principles cf th« 
Quakers — Its consequences about these times. 

It is impossible for us to continue a detailed account of the 
succeeding Eevolutionary events. These are too familiar to 
the general reader, to render their relation necessary, even 
if our space admitted of such dilation. Our object has been, 
to reproduce such characteristic memorials of the prominent 
events in the history of " Sam," as — being likely, from their 
antiquity, to be lost — renew also, by their cotemporary fresh- 
ness, our memory of the true spirit of that early time, which 
is likely to prove so necessary to this degenerate period. 
The following sketch of that noble old patriarch of American 
heroes, Daniel Morgan, has an unction in it, which might 
serve to regenerate a thousand modern Tories. 

DANIEL MORGAN. 

From the " Custis Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life 

and Character of Washington." 

The outposts of the two armies were very near to each 
other, when the American commander, desirous of obtaining 
particular information respecting the positions of his adver- 
sary, summoned the famed leader of the riflemen. Colonel 
Daniel Morgan, to headquarters. 

It was night, and the chief was alone. After his usual 
polite, yet reserved and dignified salutation, Washington 
remarked : " I have sent for you. Colonel Morgan, to intrust 
to your courage and sagacity, a reconnoiter of the enemy's 
lines, with a view to your ascertaining correctly, the position 

29 337 



388 Historical and 

of their newly -constructed redoubts ; also of the encampments 
of the British troops that have lately arrived, and those of 
their Hessian auxiliaries. Select, sir, an officer, a non-com- 
raissioned officer, and about twenty picked men, and, under 
cover of the night, proceed, but with all possible caution, get 
as near as you can, and learn all you can, and by day dawn 
retire, and make your report to headquarters. But mark 
me. Colonel Morgan, mark me well, on no account whatever, 
are you to bring on any skirmishing with the enemy; if 
discovered, make a speedy retreat; let nothing induce you 
to fire a single shot ; I repeat, sir, that no force of circum- 
stances will excuse the discharge of a single rifle on your 
part, and for the extreme preciseness of these orders, permit 
me to say, that I have my reasons." Filling two glasses with 
wine, tlie general continued: "And now, Colonel Morgan, 
wa will drink a good night, and success to your enterprise." 
Morgan quaffed the wine, smacked his lips, and assuring his 
excellency that his orders should be punctually obeyed, left 
the tent of the commander-in-chief. 

Charmed at being chosen as the executive officer of a 
daring enterprise, the leader of the woodsmen repaired to 
his quarters, and calling for Gabriel Long, his favorite cap- 
tain, ordered him to detach a sergeant and twenty prime 
fellows, who being mustered, and ordered to lay on their 
arms, ready at a moment's warning, Morgan and Long 
stretched their manly forms before the watch-fire, to await the 
going down of the moon, the signal for departure. 

A little after midnight, and while the rays of the setting 
moon still faintly glimmered in the western horizon, " Up, 
sergeant," cried Long, " stir up your men," and twenty ath- 
letic figures were upon tlieir feet in a moment. " Lidian 
file, march," and away all sprung, with the quick, yet light 
and stealthy step of the woodsmen. They reached the 
enemy's lines, crawled up so close to the pickets of the Hes- 
sians, as to inhale the odor of their pipes, discovered, by the 
newly turned-up earth, the positions of the redoubts, and by 
the numerous tents that dotted the field for "many a rood 
around," and shone dimly amid the night haze, the encamp- 
ments of the British and German reinforcements, and, in 
short, performed their perilous duty without the slightest 



Revolutionary Ixcidknts. 389 

"discovery ; and pleased, prepared to retire, just as chanticleer, 
from a neighboring farmhouse, was "bidding salutation to 
the morn." 

The adventurous party reached a small eminence, at some 
distance from the British camp, and commanding an exten- 
sive prospect over the adjoining country. Here Morgan 
halted, to give his men a little rest, before taking up his 
line of march for the American outposts. Scarcely had they 
thrown themselves on the grass, when they perceived, issuing 
from the enemy's advanced pickets, a body of horse, com- 
manded by an officer, and proceeding along the road that 
led directly by the spot where the riflemen had halted. No 
spot could be better chosen for an ambuscade, for there were 
rocks and ravines, and also scrubby oaks, that grew thickly 
on the eminence by which the road we have just mentioned, 
passed, at not exceeding a hundred yards. 

" Down, boys, down," cried JMorgan, as the horse approached, 
nor did the clansmen of the Black Bhoderick, disappear more 
promptly amid their native heather, than did Morgan's 
woodsmen in the present instance, each to his tree or rock. 
" Lie close there, my lads, till we see what these fellows are 
about." 

Meantime, the horsemen had gained the hight, and the 
officer, dropping the rein on his charger's neck, with a spy- 
glass reconnoitered the American lines. The troops closed 
up their files,* and were either cherishing the noble animals 
they rode, adjusting their equipments, or gazing upon the 
surrounding scenery, now fast brightening in the beams of a 
rising sun. 

Morgan looked at Long, and Long upon his superior, 
while the riflemen, with panting chests and sparkling eyes, 
were only awaiting the signal from their officers, " to let the 
ruin fly." 

At length, the martial ardor of Morgan overcame his 
prudence and sense of military subordination. Forgetful of 
consequences, reckless of everything but his enemy, now 
within his grasp, he waved his hand, and loud and sharp 
rang the report of the rifles amid the surrounding echoes. 
At pointblank distance, the certain and deadly aim of the 
Hunting Shirts of the revolutionary army is too well known 
to history to need remark at this time of day. In this 



■340 Historical and 

instance we have to record, the effects of the fire of th» 
riflemen were tremendous. Of the horsemen, some had 
fallen to rise no more, while their liberated chargers rushed 
wildly over the adjoining plain ; others wounded, but entangled 
with their stirrups, were dragged by the furious animals - 
expiringly along ; Avhile the very few who were unscathed,. 
. spurred hard to regain the shelter of the British lines. 

While the smoke yet canopied the scene of slaughter, and: 
the picturesque forms of the woodsmen appeared among the 
foliage, as they were reloading their pieces, the colossal: 
figure of Morgan stood apart. He seemed the very genius 
of war, as gloomily he contemplated the havoc his order 
had made. He spoke not, he moved not, but looked as one 
absorbed in an intensity of thought. The martial shout, 
with which he was wont to cheer his comrades in the hour 
of combat, was hushed, the shell '•' from which he had blown-, 
full many a note of battle and of triumph, on the fields of 
Saratoga, hung idly by his side ; no order was given to spoil- 
the slain ; the arms and equipments for which there was- 
always a bounty from Congress, the shirts, for which there 
was so much need in that, the sorest period of our country's 
privation, all, all were abandoned, as with an abstracted air, 
and a voice struggling for utterance, Morgan suddenly turn- 
ing to his captain, exclaimed : " Long, to the camp, march." 
The favorite captain obeyed, the riflemen with trailed arms 
fell into file, and Long and his party soon disappeared, but. 
not before the hardy fellows had exchanged opinions on the- 
strange termination of the late affair. And they agreed,, 
nem. con., that their colonel was tricked, (conjured,) or 
assuredly, after such afire as they had just given the enemy, 
such an emptying of saddles, and such a squandering of t^e 
troopers, he would not have ordered his poor rifle boys from 
the field, without so much as a few shirts or pairs of stockings 

* Morgan's riflemen were generally in the advance, skirmishing with 
the light troops of the enemy, or annoying his flanks ; the regiment was 
thus much divided into detachments, and dispersed over a very wide field 
of action. Morgan was in the habit of using a conch-shell frequently, 
during the heat of the battle, with which he would blow a loud and war- 
like blast. This, he said, was to inform his boys that he was still alive, 
and from many parts of the field was beholding their prowess ; and like 
the celebrated sea-warrior of another hemisphere's last signal, was^ 
expecting that " every man would do his duty." 



Eevolutionary Ixcidents. .341 

"being divided among tliem. "Yes," said a tall, lean, and 
swarthy-looking fellow, an Indian hunter, from the frontier, 
as he carefully placed his raoccasined feet in the footprints 
of his file leader, " Yes, my lads, it stands to reason, our 
colonel is tricked." 

Morgan followed slowly on the trail of his men. The full 
force of his military guilt had rushed upon his mind, even 
before the reports of his rifles had ceased to echo in the 
neighboring forests. He became more and more convinced 
of the enormity of his offense, as with dull and measured 
strides, he pursued his solitary way, and thus he soliloquized : 

" Well, Daniel Morgan, you have done for yourself. Broke, 
sir, broke to a certainty. You may go home, sir, to the 
plow ; your sword will be of no further use to you. Broke, 
sir, nothing can save you ; and there is an end of Colonel 
Morgan. Fool, fool — by a single act of madness, thus to 
destroy the earnings of so many toils, and many a hard- 
fought battle. You are broke, sir, and there is an end of 
•Colonel Morgan." 

To disturb this reverie, there suddenly appeared at full 
speed, the aid-de-camp, the Mercury of the field, who, reining 
up, accosted the colonel with, " I am ordered. Colonel Morgan, 
io ascertain whether the firing just now heard, proceeded from 
your detachment." " It did sir," replied Morgan, sourly. 
"Then, colonel," continued the aid, "I am further ordered 
to require your immediate attendance upon his excellency, 
who is approaching." Morgan bowed, and the aid, wheeling 
his charger, galloped back to rejoin his chief. 

The gleams of the morning sun upon the sabres of the 
horse guard, announced the arrival of the dreaded comman- 
der — that being who inspired with a degree of awe, every 
one who approached him. With a stern, yet dignified compo- 
sure, Washington addressed the military culprit : " Can it be 
possible. Colonel Morgan, that my aid-de-eamp has informed 
me aright? Can it be possible, after the orders you re- 
ceived last evening, that the firing we have heard proceeded 
from your detachment? Surely, sir, my orders were so 
explicit as not to be easily misunderstood." Morgan was 
brave, but it has been often, and justly too, observed, that 
the man never was born of a woman, who could approach the 
great Washington, and not feel a degree of awe and veneration 
29* 



342 Historical and 

for his presence. Morgan quailed for a moment before- 
the stern, yet just displeasure of his chief, till arousing all 
his energies to the effort, he uncovered and replied : " Your 
excellency's orders were perfectly well understood, and agree- 
ably to the same, I proceeded with a select party to reconnoiter 
the eiiemy's lines by night. We succeeded even beyond our 
expectations, and I was returning to headquarters to make 
my report, when, having halted a few minutes to rest the 
men, we discovered a party of horse coming out from the 
enemy's lines. They came up immediately to the spot where 
we lay coi;ccaled in the brushwood. There they halted, and 
gathered up together like a flock of partridges, affoi^ding me 
so tempting an opporlunity of annoying my enemy, that, 
may it please your excellency, flesh and blood could not 
refrain." 

On this rough, yet frank, bold, and manly explanation, a 
smile was observed to pass over the countenances of several 
of the general's suite. The chief remained unmoved, when, 
waving his hand, he continued : " Colonel Morgan, you will 
retire to your quarters, there to await further orders." Mor- 
gan bowed, and the military cortege rode on to the inspection 
of the outposts. 

Arrived at his quarters, Morgan threw himself upon his 
hard couch, and gave himself up to reflections upon the 
events whicli had so lately and so rapidly succeeded each 
other. He was aware that he had sinned past all hopes of 
forgiveness. Within twenty-four hours he had fallen from 
the command of a legiment, and being an especial favorite 
with the general, to bo, what? — a disgraced and broken sol- 
dier. Condemned to retire from scenes of glory, the darling 
passions of his hearts— forever to abandon the " fair fields of 
fighting men," and in obscurity to drag out the remnant of a 
wretcheil existence, neglected and forgotten. And then his 
rank, so hardly, so nobly won, with all his " blushing honors," 
acquired in the march across the frozen wilderness of the 
Kennebec, the storming of the lower town, and the gallant 
and glorious combats of Saratoga. 

The hours dragged gloomily away ; night c^ime, but with 
it no rest for the troubled spirit of poor Morgan. The drums 
and fifes merrily sounded the soldier's dawn, and the sun 
arose, giving "promise of a good day." And to many ■vithin 



Revolutionary Incidents. 343 

the circuit of that widely-extended camp, did its genial heams 
give hope, and joy, and gladness, while it cheered not with 
a single ray the despairing leader of the woodsmen. 

Ahout ten o'clock, the orderly on duty reported the arrival 
of an officer of the staff, from headquarters, and Lieutenant 
Colonel Hamilton, the favorite aid of the commander-in-chief, 
entered the markee. "Be seated," said Morgan; "I know 
your errand, so be short, my dear fellow, and put me out of 
my misery at once. I know that I am arrested ; 'tis a matter 
of course. Well, there is my sword; but surely, his excel- 
lency honors me, indeed, in these last moments of my military 
existence, when he sends for my sword by his favorite aid, 
and my most esteemed friend. Ah, my dear Hamilton, if 
you knew what I had suffered since the cursed hors ^ came 
out to tempt me to ruin." 

Hamilton, about whose strikingly-intelligent countenance 
there always lurked a playful smile, now observed: " Colonel 
Morgan, his excellency has ordered me to — " " I knew it," 
interrupted Morgan, " to bid me prepare for trial ! Guilty, 
sir, guilty past all doubt. But then, (recollecting himself,) 
perhaps my services might plead — nonsense ; against the 
disobedience of a positive order? no, no, it is all over with 
mo ; Hamilton, there is an end of your old friend and of 
Colonel Morgan." The agonized spirit of our hero then 
mounted a pitch of enthusiasm, as he exclaimed: "But my 
country will remember my services, and the British and 
Hessians will remember me too, for though I may be far 
away, my brave comrades will do their duty, and Morgan's 
riflemen be, as they always have been, a terror to the 
enemy." 

The noble, the generous-souled Hamilton could no longer 
bear to witness the struggles of the brave unfortunate ; he 
called out : " Hear me, my dear colonel, only promise to hear 
me for one moment, and I will tell you all." " Go on, sir," 
replied Morgan, despairingly, " go on." ': Then," continued 
the aid-de-camp, " you must know that the commanders of 
regiments dine with his excellency to-day." " What of that?" 
again interrupted Morgan; "what has that to do with me, a 
prisoner, and — " " No, no," exclaimed Hamilton, " no pris- 
oner ; a once offending, but now forgiven soldier ; my orders 
are to invite you to dine with his excellency to-day at three 



344 Historical and 

o'clock, precisely. Yes, my brave and good friend, Colonel 
Morgan, you still are, and likely long to be, the valued and 
famed commander of tbe rifle regiment." 

Morgan sprang from the camp-bed on which he was sitting, 
and seized the hand of the little great man in his giant 
grasp, wrung and wrung until the aid-de-camp literally 
struggled to get free, then exclaimed, "Am I in my senses? 
but I know you, Hamilton — you are too noble a fellow to 
sport with the feelings of an old soldier." Hamilton assured 
his friend that all was true, and, kissing his hand as he 
mounted his horse, bade the now delighted colonel remember 
three o'clock, and to be careful not to disobey a second time, 
galloped to the headquarters. 

Morgan entered the pavilion of the commander in chief as 
it was fast filling with officers, all of whom, after paying their 
respects to the general, filed off to give a cordial squeeze of 
the hand to the commander of the rifle regiment, and to 
whisper in his ear words of congratulation. The cloth 
removed, Washington bade his guests fill their glasses, and 
gave his only, his unvarying toast — the toast of the days of 
trial, the toast of the evening of his "time-honored" life, 
amid the shades of Mount Vernon — "All our friends." Then, 
with his usual old-fashioned politeness, he drank to each 
guest by name. When he came to " Colonel Morgan, your 
good health, sir," a thrill ran through the manly frame of 
the gratified and again favorite soldier, while every eye in 
the pavilion was turned upon him. At an early hour the 
company broke up, and ]\Iorgan had a perfect escort of officers 
to accompany him to his quarters, all anxious to congratulate 
him upon his happy restoration to rank and favor, all pleased 
to assure him of their esteem for his person and services. 

And often in his after-life did Morgan reason upon the 
events which we have transmitted to Americans and their 
posterity, and he would say, "What could the unusual clem- 
ency of the commander-in-chief towards so insubordinate a 
soldier as I was, mean ? Was it that my attacking my enemy 
wherever I could find him, and the attack being crowned with 
success, should plead in bar of the disobedience of a positive 
order ? Certainly not. Was it that Washington well knew 
I loved, nay, adored him above all human beings ? That 
knowledge would not have weighed a feather in the scale of 



Revolutionary Incidents. 345 

his military justice. In short, the whole affair is explained 
in five words : It was my first offense." 

The clemency of Washington to the first offfense, preserved 
to the army of the revolution one of its most valued and 
.effective soldiers, and had its reward in little more than two 
years from the date of our narrative, when Brigadier General 
Morgan consummated his own fame, and shed an undying 
lustre on the arms of his country, by the glorious and ever- 
memorable victory of the Cowpens. 

Nearly twenty years more had rolled away, and our hero, 
like most of his companions, had beaten his sword into a 
plowshare, and was enjoying, in the midst of a domestic circle, 
the evening of a varied and eventful life. When advanced 
in years, and infirm. Major General Morgan was called to the 
supreme legislature of his country, as a representative from 
the State of Virginia. It was at this period that the author 
•of these memoirs had the honor and happiness of an interview 
with the old general, which lasted for several days. And the 
veteran was most kind and communicative to one, who, hailing 
from the immediate family of the venerated chief, found a 
ready and warm welcome to the heart of Morgan. And 
many and most touching reminiscences of the days of trial 
were related by the once famed leader of the woodsmen, which 
were eagerly devoured and carefully treasured by their 
youthful and delighted listener, in a memory of no ordinary 
power. 

And it was there the unlettered Morgan, a man bred amid 
the scenes of danger and 'hardihood that distinguished the 
frontier warfare, with little book knowledge, but gifted by 
nature with a strong and discriminating mind, paid to the 
fame and memory of the father of our country, a more just, 
more magnificent tribute than, in our humble judgment, has 
emanated from the thousand and one efforts of the best and 
brightest genuises of the age. General Morgan spoke of the 
necessity of Washington to the army of the revolution, and 
the success of the struggle for independence. He said, "We 
had officers of great military talents, as, for instance, Greene 
and others ; we had officers of the most consummate courage 
and enterprising spirit, as, for instance, Wayne and others. 
One was yet necessary, to guide, direct, and animate the whole, 



346 Historical and 

and it pleased Almighty God to send that one in the person 
of George Washington." 

The modern tories, to whom we alluded in introducing 
this fine sketch, will find something also, in the subjoined 
papers to freshen their memories, in regard to who were most 
justly regarded as tories of the olden time : — 

BRITISH in PHILADELPHIA. 

A much-valued friend has placed in the hands of the editor, 
a large volume of papers, containing the correspondence of 
Brigadier-General Lacey, of Pennsylvania, who commanded 
the Militia stationed on the east bank of the Schuylkill, to 
watch the motions of the enemy, and prevent his obtaining 
supplies. 

General Lacey's orders to his scouting parties, March 9, 
1778 : — " If your parties should meet with any people going 
to market, or any persons whatever going to the city, and 
they endeavor to make their escape, you will order your men 
to fire upon the villains. You will leave such on the roads — 
their bodies and their marketing lying together. This 1 
wish you to execute on the first offenders you meet, that they 
may be a warning to others." 

General Washington to General Lacey, dated at Valley 
Forge, 20th March, 1778: — Sunday next being the time on 
which the Quakers hold one of their general meetings, a 
number of that society will probably be attempting to go into 
Philadelphia. This is an intercourse that we should by all 
means endeavor to interrupt, as the plans settled at these 
meetings are of the most pernicious tendency ."■■' I would 

** I was in great doubt — whether I ought to publish or suppress this let- 
ler — bat, on reflection, have thought best to insert it. It must be admitted 
that a great majority of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, were " well inclined" 
to the British, and some of them went great lengths out of the rules of 
their profession, to aid and comfort the enemy of their country; others by 
adhering to those rules and refusing to take any part in the contest, even 
by the payment of taxes, were improperly suspected of disaffection, when 
in fact they were only neutral, refusing to have anything to do with the 
war; a few, however, laid aside their testimony against fighting, and con- 
tended gallantly for freedom. Persons of this religious persuasion in some 
other States, were sincerely attached to the cause of Independence, and 



Revolutionary Incidents. 347 

therefore have you dispose of your parties in such a manner 
as will most probably fall in with these people, and if you 
should, and any of them should be mounted on horses fit for 
draught, or the service of light dragoons, I desire they may 
be taken from them, and sent over to the quarter-master- 
general. Any such are not to be considered as the property 
of the parties who may seize them, as in other cases. Com- 
municate the above orders to any of the officers who may 
command scouting parties on your side of the Schuylkill." 

[General Lacey, in reply, says he had ordered out his 
horse to stop the Quakers, with orders, " if they refuse to 
stop when hailed, to fire into them, and leave their bodies 
lying in the road."] 

This is the commentary of Niles, of the old Register, who 
published this correspondence nearly thirty-five years ago, and 
for the first time, but we would beg leave to add, as a com- 
ment upon his apology, the following extract from the speech 
of a* prominent Revolutioi^ary leader, upon the floor of the 
Continental Congress. It is taken from his own columns : — 

I have excluded those from the privileges of free white 
inhabitants in the several States, who refuse to take up arms 
in defense of the confederacy — a measure, in my opinion, 
perfectly just. It is said, example before precept. Let the 
Quakers take shelter under any text in Scripture they 
please — the best they can find is but a far-fetched implica- 
tion in their favor. However, had their precept been in more 
positive terms, I think I have an example at hand, capable 
of driving them from such a cover. We read that " Jesus 
went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold 
and bought in the temple, and overturned the tables of 
the money-changers." Here we see the arm of the flesh 
raised up, and a degree of hostile violence exercised, suffi- 
cient to the end in view. And shall it be said, violence 
is not justifiable ? Did not God command Moses to num- 
ber "all that were able to go forth in war, in Israel?" 

did all they consistently could do to assist the whigs. A stoppage of the 
intercourse with Philadelphia, at the time, was indubitably necessary and 
proper — but General Washington was misinformed, I apprehend, when 
he spoke of the " plans " settled at the " meetings " of the Quakers — what- 
ever they may have done as individuals, their ^^ meetings" must have passed 
without the adoption of any plans of a political nature — for such thinga. 
are not suffered to be mentioned in them. 



348 Historical and 

Did not Moses, by the Divine order, send twelve thousand 
men to cut off the Midianites. And, although " they slew all 
the males," were they not reprehended for having " saved 
all the women alive f Did not the Almighty command the 
■children of Israel, that when they had passed into Canaan 
•" then they should drive out all the inhabitants of the land 
from before them ?" Did not Moses direct that when the 
people were " come nigh unto the battle," the priests should 
■encourage them, declaring that the Lord their God was with 
them " io fight for them against their enemies?" And yet 
the Quakers have sagaciously found out a few words which, 
by implication, they contend restrain from doing now, what 
God then commanded as just. The grand pinciples of moral 
rectitude are eternal. Dare the Quakers contend that the 
myriads who have drawn the sword since the commencement 
of the Christian era, are damned for having done so ? And 
unless they maintain this position, they seem to have no 
reasonable excuse for their creed and conduct. They Seem 
^ to have forgot that it is written " how hardly shall- they that 
have riches enter into kingdom of God !" Are there any 
people on the face of the earth more diligent after riches 
than the Quakers? We, in this time of calamity, know it 
to our cost. Without doubt, there are many valuable men 
•of that sect ; men of that persuasion are very good citizens 
in time of peace, but it is their principle in time of war I 
condemn. Is tliere a Quaker w^ho will not bring his action 
for trespass ? Is not this an opposition to force ? Have they 
forgot their principles of meekness and non-resistance ? The 
great Lord Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead, tells us 
" it is blasphemy to say that any folly could come from the 
fountain of wisdom. Whatever is inconsistent with the great 
laws of nature, and with the necessary state of human 
society, cannot be inspired by the Divinity. Self-'defense is 
as necessary to nations as to men. And shall men particu- 
larly have a right which nations have not ? True religion 
is the perfection of reason. Fanaticism is the disgrace", the 
destruction of reason." Than all this, nothing could be 
more just, certain, and evident. Can those men reasonably 
claim an equal participation in civil rights, who, under any 
pretence whatsoever, will not assist in defending them? 
;Shall there be a people maintained in the possession of their 



Ebyolutionary Incidents. 34^ 

riches by the blood and labor of other men ? Are not the> 
Quakers, s )me few excepted, the most inveterate enemies to 
the independence of America ? Have they not openly taken 
part with those in arms against us ? I consider them not 
only as a dead weight upon our hands, but as a dangerous 
body in our bosom, and I would, therefore, gladly be rid of 
them. I almost wish to " drive out all such inhabitants of 
the land from . before us." The Canaanites knew not God. 
But the Quakers say they know him ; and yet, according to 
the idea of Lord Lyttleton, would have gross folly and injus- 
tice to proceed from the fountain of wisdom and equity. I 
entertain these sentiments with a conscience perfectly at ease- 
on this point. If such treatment shall be termed persecu- 
tion, the conscientious Quakers can never take it amiss, when 
they recollect it is "blessed are they that are persecuted for 
Christ's sake." I do not consider this as such a persecution. 
But if they should, can they be displeased at being placed 
in a situation to be blessed '? And I would lay it down as a 
truth, that whoever of that sect should be offended at such 
treatment, would deserve to be expelled from our society, as 
the buyers, sellers, and money-changers were cast out of the 
temple. I am not afraid of any resentment, when it is my 
duty to act in behalf of the rights and interests of America. 
I trust I fully demonstrated this resolution when, on the 
25th of April, 1776, I had the honor, in the supreme seat 
of justice, to make the first public declaration in America, 
that my countrymen owed no allegiance to the king of Great 
Britain. 



30 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Treaty with France — The progress of the War, North and South — The 
Cowpens — Yorktown — Surrender of Cornwallis — Letter from General 
Washington. 

We will now proceed with a rapid summary of the con- 
cluding events of the great war. 

The important treaties with France, of commerce and 
defensive alliance, which had been so long and eagerly sought 
for, were the first events of consequence which now ensued. 
The importance of these treaties, however, except so far as 
they finally served to strengthen our now rapidly declining 
financial credit, the historian of '• Sam" thinks to have been 
habitually overrated by local and provincial historians ; seeing 
that the very basis of their formation was plainly avowed 
to rest upon the fact, that he had already exhibited his full 
ability to take care of himself. That he had already 
demonstrated himself, by virtue of his mighty thews and 
sinews, to be the master of his own destiny, afforded, no 
doubt, to Johnny Crapeaud, a mighty opportunity for a grand 
display of magnanimity, in helping him to a place of 
national recognition, in which no leaven of ancient animosity 
was, of course, mingled, to disflavor the generosity of the 
patronage ! 

That France liad hated England from the beginning, was 
necessarily, to the modern foes of " Sam," no reason why 
France loved America less ! Her disinterestedness in send- 
ing us the cast-of military adventurers of Europe, who 
crowded her capital, and of whom she was only too happy to 
be rid, and who only managed to annoy Congress and Wash- 
ington, with endless importunities for tlieir precious services, 
350 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 351 

which were never rendered, except in second rate skirmishes, 
although they had unanimously consented to fight his battles 
for him, in the subordinate positions of prepaid and overpaid 
Oenerals, Brigadiers, etc ! 

Be this as it may, for these evidences of disinterestedness, 
" Sam " lias, however, for seventy-nine years since, shown 
himself duly or unduly, so scrupulously grateful, as to have 
allowed to all foreigners greater franchises than he has ever 
permitted even to his own children. He has given them 
most of his offices, set them to teaching most of his schools, 
with professorships and gratuities of every imaginable grade 
and class, and all because he had three or four honorable 
and upright servitors among them, during the dark hours 
of his tribulation. 

But it unluckily appears, tliat this excessive gratitude on 
the part of " Sam," instead of covering them with humility, 
and rendering them grateful for largess bestowed with a 
magnanimous hand, has filled them with the insolence which 
has always accompanied the reaction of servility, and caused 
them to assume the airs of masters, and even sovereign dic- 
tators. 

But " Sam " 1ms lost patience at last, and his mighty arm 
is now raised over them in wrath, and with one haughty. 
finger pointing at the pillory, he brandishes aloft the whips 
of his electric threatenings above their cowering backs, and 
gives them to understand, in a voice that shakes the conti- 
nent, " hence, to your kennels, hounds ! I am master here ! 
disorganize rs, tories, insolent and ungrateful presumers upon 
a precious magnanimity, which you were too much born-serfs 
in your own pageant-saddled and king-ridden lands to com- 
prehend, learn to respect my own born children, and know 
your places ! Know that ye are but fugitive-slaves, among 
a people of sovereign freemen, and only tolerated on good 
behavior, until a sufficient period of probation has shown you 
to be worthy the privileges of citizenship !" Yes, the time 
has come for the peremptory rebuke of this presuming 
arrogance, against the annoyance of which, even during this 
early period of the Eevolution, the lofty and patient Wash- 
ington found it necessary to write several complaining- 
letters to the Continental Congress, beseeching them to 
juase giving any further encouragements to these clamorous 



362 Historical and 

and greedy cormorants, who incessantly beset his marquee, 
and worried him with their unheard of demands ! 

So great had this evil at this time become, that Congress 
thought it necessary to recall their foolish and imprudent 
agent at Paris, Dean, and force him to give a stern account 
of his conduct, for having sent over such a swarm of impu 
dent beggars, to assail every department of the Govermeut 
with their importunate clamors. And the example of such 
beggar lazzaroni as they then complained of, has been very 
successfully followed up to the present day. 

But it is time for us to return to our proposed hasty out- 
line. The French fleet, under D'Estaing, had now arrived. 
The British found it necessary to withdraw from Philadelphia, 
When the evacuation became known to the American army, 
Washington determined upon immediate pursuit; and every 
one will remember the indecisive battle of Monmouth which 
followed, and the either treacherous or dastardly conduct 
on the field, of Lee, whom Washington, in his irritation, 
impetuously denounced as a coward, when he met him in 
full retreat, with the whole American advance. 

The conduct of Lee has been much discussed, pro and con, 
but we think that no one who will take the trouble to 
remember his precedents, will for a moment delude himself 
with the supposition that Lee's conduct was the result of 
cowardice. Yet we have always thought he ought to have 
been court-martialed and cashiered on the spot, or else strung 
as high as Arnold would have been hung, had he been 
caught ; for his conduct was clearly the result of personal 
jealousy of Washington, and a desire to defeat a movement 
which he had opposed in a council of war, which preceded the 
pursuit. 

Had he succeeded in effecting this "masterly inactive'^ 
policy of his, and the British army been permitted to escape 
without harrassment or loss, it would, in the then existing 
conditions of bitter jealousy and intrigue against Washing- 
ton, have greatly shocked the as yet unshaken confidence 
of the sagacious Congress, which carefully overlooked, with 
penetrating vision, the whole field of operations in their 
favorite servant and general, Washington ; in which events 
Master Lee, who was second in command, might have natur 
ally looked forward to the eagle plume of chieftainship. 



Revolutionary Incidlcnts. 853 

This Congress affords, perhaps, the only instance in which 
a legislative body has, with just discrimination, supervised 
the operations of a long and perilous war, without rashly 
entrusting too great powers to its generals, or embarrassing 
them with impertinent interference. Such bodies usually 
fail in one extreme or the other. 

But the hand of " Sam," under God, was over this body, 
than whom, a wiser and nobler assemblage history docs not 
record to have ever assembled before, for executive purposes. 

The Indian wars, which now ravaged the Western and 
Northern Frontiers, now resulted in the savage massacre of 
Wyoming, which was promptly followed by a proportionate 
retribution against our quondam friends, the Six Nations, 
and the prompt return of several tribes to their ancient alle- 
giance. The war, then transferred to the South, was attended 
with serious calamities to our cause. Savannah taken, and 
Georg-ia subdued. North and South Carolina were reduced to 
extremities. 

In the meantime, King's Ferry, on the Hudson, was occu- 
pied by the British ; Stoney Point surprised ; and Spain takes 
a hand against America in the war — and John Paul Jones, 
the Americanized Scotchman, performed Herculean prodigies 
of valor on the sea. Charleston soon after capitulated, and 
with it came the submission of the State to British rule. 

A savage partisan warfare now arose, and the gallants 
Marion and Sumpter, began to be heard of, through the 
indomitable prowess of their surprising feats. The disastrous 
rout at Camden, and the treachery of Arnold, with the trial 
and execution of Andrd, followed in close succession. The 
gallant Greene, appointed to the command in the south, to 
take the place of the renegade Gates, soon caused a change 
in the aspect of aftairs in this direction. 

The sharp and close fighting of our backwoods' men at 
the battle of King's Mountain, somewhat revived the spirits 
of the South. A quarrel between Great Britain and Holland, 
which occurred about this time, tended somewhat to the em- 
barrassment of tlie former. 

The financial embarrassments and depreciation of Contin- 
ental currency, had now about reached its climax, and the 
disaffection of the army, and the difficulty of keeping it 
30* 



354 Historical and 

together, became every day more great. Several regiments 
rebelled, and many left the field entirely, for want of pay. 

The battle of the " Cowpens," on the borders of the Caro- 
linas, in which the redoubtable conch-shell of the hurley 
Morgan, carried terror to the craven heart of the bloody 
Tarleton, and sot the lordly Cornwallis on his " pegs," into 
the hasty trot of retreat, at the cost of a great loss of stores 
and baggage — roused up the ever-vigilant Greene ; and 
although Cornwallis had been discreetly compelled to reduce 
his whole army to the condition of a light infantry corps, 
for the purpose of pursuing the discreet retreat of the vic- 
torious Morgan, Greene was enabled to effect an immediate 
junction with Morgan, who had managed to effect his escape, 
owing to the sudden rise of waters which prevented the pur- 
suit of his enemies. 

The battle of Gilford Court-house, which now follows, and 
may be called a drawn battle, (though attended with great 
loss to the British, and compelling Cornwallis to retire,) was 
very inspiriting to our cause. 

Green was everywhere successful. The petulant and irrit- 
able D'Estaing had in the meantime returned with his fleet 
from the West Indies. Cornwallis, who had finally reached 
Virginia on his fourth retreat, found himself rapidly involved 
in the inextricable meshes, from which he never finally 
escaped. 

The details of the subsequent movements of Washington 
and Greene, one moving suddenly from the north and the 
other from the south, are too well known to require any 
greater detail here. It is sufiicient that now came the great 
climax of our struggle. Washington, Greene, and the Count 
De Grasse, who had now assumed the command of the French 
force, by a long concerted movement, as we shall proceed to 
show, now unexpectedly closed upon the army of the British 
lord, who found himself, to his' great dismay, beleaguered 
from all sides, in the paltry village of Yorktown. 

As our purpose has been to add new light to old and well- 
known facts, rather than to follow slavishly old records of 
familiar details, we append the following ancient and au- 
thentic documents concerning this great event. We give 
first the following document, containing a private letter 
written by Washington in 1778. 



Revolutionary Incidents. 355 

It has been controverted, whether the capture of General 
^CornwalUs was the result of a plan preconce^'ted between Gen- 
eral Washington and Count De Grasse : or rather, whether the 
arrival of the Count in the Chesapeake, was predetermined and 
expected by General Washington, and consequently all the prepa- 
rations to attack New York, a mere finesse to deceive the enemy : 
or whether the real intention was against New York, and the 
siege of Yorktown planned upon the unexpected arrival of the 
French fleet, in the Bay. The following letter will set the matter 
An its true light. — [Carey's Museum. 

Mount Vernon, July 31, 1788. 

Sir — I duly received your letter of the 14:tli inst., and can 
only answer you briefly, and generally from memory — that 
a combined operation of the land and naval forces of France, 
in America, for the year 1781, was preconcerted the year 
before ; that the point of attack was not absolutely agreed 
upon, * because it could not be foreknown where the enemy 
would be most susceptible of impression ; and because we 
(having the command of the water, with sufficient means of 
conveyance) could transport ourselves to any spot with the 
greatest celerity ; that it was determined by me, nearly 
twelve months beforehand, at all hazards, to give out, and 
cause it to be believed, by the highest military, as well as 
civil officers, that New York was the destined place of attack, 
for the important purpose of inducing the Eastern and Middle 
States to make greater exertions in furnishing specific sup- 
plies, than they otherwise would have done, as well as for 
the interesting purpose of rendering the enemy less prepared 
elsewhere ; that, by these means, and these alone, artillery, 
boats, stores, and provisions, were in seasonable preparation 
to move with the utmost rapidity to any part of the conti- 
nent ; for the difficulty consisted more in providing, than 
knowing how to apply the military apparatus. That, before the 
arrival of the Count De Grasse, it was the fixed determina- 
tion to strike the enemy in the most vulnerable quarter, so as to 
insure success with moral certainty, as our atfairs were then 
in the most ominous train imaginable ; that New York was 

** Because it would be easy for Count De Grasse in good time befoi'e his 
departure from the West Indies, to give notice, by express, at what place 
he could most conveniently first touch, to receive advice. 



356 Historical and 

thought to be beyond our efforts, and consequently, that the* 
only hesitation that remained, was between an attack upo«. 
the British army in Virginia, and that in Charleston; anr- 
finally, that, by the intervention of several communications 
and some incidents which can not be detailed in a leHer, the 
hostile post in Virginia, from being a provisional and strongly, 
expected, became the definitive and certain object of the campaign 

I only add, that it never was in contemplation to attack 
New York, unless the garrison should first have been so far- 
degarnished, to carry on the Southern operations, as to render 
our success in the siege of that place, as infallible as any 
future military event can ever be. For I repeat it, and dwell 
upon it again, some splendid advantage (whether upon a 
larger or smaller scale was almost immaterial) was so essen- 
tially necessary, to revive the expiring hope and languid 
exertions of the country, at the crisis in question, that I never 
would have consented to embark in any enterprise, wherein,, 
from the most rational plan and accurate calculation, the 
favorable issue should not have appeared to my view as a ray 
of light. The failure of an attempt against the posts of the- 
enemy, could, in no other possible situation during the war, 
have been so fatal to our cause. 

That much trouble was taken, and finesse used, to mis- 
guide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton, in regard to the real 
object, by fictitious communications, as well as by making a. 
deceptive provision of ovens, forage, and boats in the neigh- 
borhood, is certain ; nor were less pains taken to deceive oui^ 
own army; for I always conceived where the imposition does 
not completely take place at home, it would never sufficiently 
succeed abroad. 

Your desire of obtaining truth is very laudable ; I wish I 
had more leisure to gratify it, as I am equally solicitous the 
undisguised verity should be known. Many circumstances 
will unavoidably be misconceived and misrepresented. Not- 
withstanding most of the papers which may properly be 
deemed official, are preserved, yet the knowledge of innu- 
merable things of a more delicate and secret nature, is con- 
fined to the perishable remembrance of some few of the 
present generation. 

With esteem, I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, 

George Washington. 



RevolutionaPwY Incidents. 857 

We will now give a grapliic account of the ceremonies 
«ittending the surrender of York town. 

THE SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN. 

From the Richmond Compiler, of April 10, 1818. 

As every incident connected with our Revolutionary his- 
tory, is interesting to the great mass of the people, I shall 
.solicit a niche in your paper, to answer an inquiry in a late 
Oompiler, concerning the surrender of the British army, at 
Yorktown, Virginia; and hope that your readers will experi- 
ence the same pleasure in reading the account, that I enjoy 
in the narration. 

"At two o'clock in the evening, October 19th, 1781, the 
British army, led by General O'Hara, marched out of its 
lines, with colors cased, and drums beating a British march. 

" It will be seen in the sequel, that O'Hara, and not Corn- 
wallis, surrendered the British army to the allied forces of 
France and America. In this affair. Lord Cornwallis seemed 
to have lost all his former magnanimity and firmness of 
■character — he sunk beneath the pressure of his misfortunes, 
and, for a moment, gave his soul up to chagrin and sorrow. 

"The road through which they marched, was lined with 
spectators, French and Americans. On one side, the com- 
mander-in-chief, surrounded by his suite and the American 
staffs, took his station ; on the other side, opposite to him, 
was the Count de Rochambeau, in like manner attended. 
The captive army approached, moving slowly in column, with 
grace and precision. 

*' Universal silence was observed amidst the vast concourse, 
and the utmost decency prevailed, exhibiting in demeanor, an 
awful sense of the vicissitudes of human life, mingled with 
commiseration for the unhappy. The head of the column 
approached the commander-in-chief; O'Hara, mistaking the 
circle, turned to that on his left, for the purpose of paying 
his respects to the commander-in-chief, and requesting fur- 
ther orders ; when quickly discovering his error, with embar- 
rassment in his countenance, he flew across the road, and 
advanced up to Washington, asked pardon for his mistake, 
apologized for the absence of Lord Oornwallis, and begged to 
tnow his further pleasure. 



368 Historical and 

" The General, feeling his embarrassment, relieved it hj- 
referring him, with much politeness, to General Lincoln for; 
his government. Returning to the head of the column, it 
again moved, under the guidance of Lincoln, to the field 
selected for the conclusion of the ceremony. 

" Every eye was turned, searching for the British com- 
mander-in-chief, anxious to look at a man, heretofore so much 
their dread. All were disappointed. 

" Cornwallis held himself back from the humiliating scene; 
obeying sensations whicli his great character ought to have 
stifled. He had been unfortunate, not from any false step^ 
or deficiency of exertion on his part, but from the infatuated 
policy of his superior, and the united power of his enemy^ 
brought to bear upon him alone. There was nothing with 
which he could reproach himself; there was nothing with 
which he could reproach his brave and faithful army ; why 
not then appear at its head in the day of misfortune, as he- 
had always done in the day of triumph '? 

"The British general in this instance, deviated from his- 
usual line of conduct, dimming the splendor of his long and- 
brilliant career, 

" Thus ended the important co-operation of the allied 
forces. Great was the joy diff'used throughout our infant, 
empire." 

I can not end this interesting detail, as recorded by Henry- 
Lee, without giving you his panegyric on the father of our 
country : 

" This wide acclaim of joy and of confidence, as rare as 
sincere, sprung not only from the conviction that our signal 
success would bring in its train the blessings of peace, so- 
wanted by our wasted country, and from the splendor with 
which it encircled our national name, but from the endearing 
reflection that the mighty exj^loit had been achieved by our 
faithful, beloved Washington. We had seen him struggling 
throughout the war, with inferior force, against the best 
troops of England, assisted by her powerful navy ; surrounded 
by difiiculties, oppressed by want, never dismayed, never 
appalled, never despairing of the commonwealth. 

" We have seen him renouncing his fame as a soldier, hia- 
gafety as a man, in his unalloyed love of country ; weakening 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 369 

his own immediate force to strengthen that of his lieu- 
tenants ; submitting with equanimity to his own subsequent 
inability to act, and rejoicing in their triumphs, because best 
calculated to uphold the great cause intrusted to his care ; 
at length, by one great and final exploit, under the benign 
influence of Providence, lifted to the pinnacle .of glory, the 
reward of his toil, his sufierings, his patience, his heroism, 
and his virtue. Wonderful man ! rendering it difficult by 
his conduct throughout life, to decide whether he most excel- 
led in goodness or in greatness." 

Here also is a curious paper which illustrates the eflect of 
the surrender of Cornwallis, giveai in the words of an eye- 
witness, a candid Englishman, who was an habitue of the 
British Court at the time of the arrival of the news : 



SURRENDER OF LORD CORNWALLIS. 
From Sir. N. W. Wraxall's "Memoirs of his Own Time." 

November, 1781. During the whole month of November 
the concurring accounts transmitted to government, enumer- 
ating Lord Cornwallis' embarrassments and the positions 
taken by the enemy, augmented the anxiety of the Cabinet. 
Lord George Germain, in particular, conscious that on the 
prosperous or adverse termination of that expedition, must 
hinge the fate of the American contest, his own stay in office, 
as well as probably the duration of the ministry itself, felt, 
and even expressed to his friends, the strongest uneasiness 
on the subject. The meeting of Parliament, meanwhile, 
stood fixed tor the 27th of November. On Sunday, the 25th, 
about noon, official intelligence of the surrender of the Brit 
ish forces at Yorktown, arrived from Falmouth, at Lord Ger- 
main's house in Pall Mall. Lord Walsingham, who, previous 
to his father, Sir William de Gray's elevation to the peerage, 
had been under secretary of state in that department, and 
who was selected to second the address in the House of Peers 
on the subsequent Tuesday, happened to be there when the 
messenger brought the news. Without communicating it 
' to any person, Lord George, for the purpose of despatch, 
immediately got with him into a hackney-coach and drove to 



360 Historical and 

Lord Stormount's residence in Portland Place. Having 
imparted to him the disastrous information, and taken him 
into the carriage, they instantly proceeded to the Chancellor'a 
house, in Great Hussel Street, Bloomsbury, whom they found 
at home ; when, after a short consultation, they determined 
to lay it themselves, in person, before Lord North. He had 
not received any intimation of the event when they arrived 
at his door, in Downing Street, between one and two o'clock. 
The first minister's firmness, and even his presence of mind, 
gave way for a short time, under this awful disaster. I 
asked Lord George afterwards, how he took the communica- 
tion when made to him ? " As I would have taken a ball in 
my breast," replied Lord George. '* For he opened his arms, 
exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment 
during several minutes, ' ! God ! it is all over !' Words 
which he repeated many times, under emotions of the deepest 
agitation and distress." 

When the first agitation of their minds had subsided, the 
four ministers discussed the question, whether or not it might 
be expedient to prorogue Parliament for a few days ; but, as 
scarcely an interval of forty-eight hours remained before the 
appointed time of assembling, and, as many members of both 
houses were already either arrived in London, or on the road, 
that proposition was abandoned. It became, however, indis- 
pensable to alter, and almost to model anew the king's 
speech, which had already been drawn up, and completely 
prepared for delivery from the throne. This alteration was, 
therefore, made without delay ; and at the same time. Lord 
George Germain, as secretary for the American department, 
sent off a despatch to his majesty; who was then at Kew, 
acquainting him with the melancholy termination of Lord 
Cornwallis' expedition. Some hours having elapsed before 
the^e different, but necessary acts of business could take 
place, the ministers separated, and Lord George Germain 
repaired to his office in Whitehall. There he found a con- 
firmation of the intelligence, which arrived about two hours 
after the first communication ; having been transmitted from 
Dover, from which place it was forwarded to Calais with the 
French account of the same event. 

I dined on that day at Lord George's ; and though the 
information which had reached London in the course of tho 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 36] 

morning, from two different quarters, was of a nature not to 
admit of long concealment, yet it had not been communicated 
to me, nor to any individual of the company, as it might 
naturally have been, through the channel of common report, 
when I got to Pall Mall, between five and six o'clock. Lord 
Walsingham, who likewise dined there, was the only person 
present, except Lord George, who was acquainted with the 
fact. The party, nine in number, sat down to table. I 
thought the master of the house appeared serious, though 
he manifested no discomposure. Before the dinner was 
finished, one of his servants delivered him a letter, brought 
back from the messenger who had been despatched to the 
king. Lord George opened and perused it ; then looking at 
Lord Walsingham, to whom he exclusively directed his ob- 
servation, "The king writes," said he, "just as he always 
does, except that I observe he has omitted to mark the hour 
and the minute of his writing, with his usual precision." 
This remark, though calculated to awaken some interest, 
excited no comment ; and while the ladies. Lord George's 
three daughters, remained in the room, we repressed our 
curiosity. But they had no sooner withdrawn, than Lord 
George, having acquainted us that from Paris information 
had just arrived of the old Count de Maurepas, first minister, 
lying at the point of death: "It would grieve me," said I 
" to finish my career, however far advanced in years, were 
I first minister of France, before I had witnessed the termi- 
nation of this great contest between England and America." 
** He has survived to see that event," replied Lord George, 
with some agitation. Utterly unsuspicious of the fact which 
had happened beyond the Atlantic, I conceived him to allude 
to the indecisive naval action fought at the mouth of the 
"Chesapeake, early in the preceding month of September, 
between Admiral Graves and Count de Grasse ; which, in its 
results, might prove most injurious to Lord Cornwallis. Under 
this impression, " my meaning," said I, " is that if I were 
the Count de Maurepas, I should wish to live long enough to 
behold the final issue of the war in Virginia." " He has 
survived to witness it completely," answered Lord George, 
** the army has surrendered, and you may peruse the parti- 
culars of the capitulation in that paper." taking at the same 
time one from his pocket, which he delivered into my hand, 
31 



362 Historical and 

not without visible emotion. By his permission, I read it aloud^ 
while the company listened in profound silence. We then 
discussed its contents, as it effected the ministry, the country 
and the war. It must be confessed that they were calculated 
to diffuse a gloom over the most convivial society, and that 
they opened a wide field for practical speculation. 

After perusing the account of Lord Cornwallis's surrender 
at Yorktown, it was impossible for all present not to feel a 
lively curiosity to know how the king had received the intel- 
ligence, as well as how he expressed himself in his note to 
Lord George Germain, on the first communication of so pain- 
ful an event. He gratified our wish by reading it to us, 
observing at the same time, that it did the highest honor to 
his Majesty's fortitude, firmness, and consistency of character. 
The words made an impression on my memory which the 
lapse of more than thirty years has not erased ; and I shall 
here communicate its tenor, as serving to show how that 
prince felt and wrote, under one of the most afflicting, as 
well as humiliating occurrences of his reign. The billet ran 
nearly to this effect: " I have received, with sentiments of the 
deepest concern, the communication which Lord George Ger- 
main has made me, of the unfortunate result of the opera- 
tions in Virginia. I particularly lament it, on account of the 
consequences connected with it, and the difficulties which it 
may produce in carrying on the public business, or in repair- 
ing such a misfortune. But I trust that neither I/ord George 
Germain, nor any member of the cabinet, will suppose that 
it makes any alteration in those principles of my conduct 
which have directed me in past times, and which will always 
continue to animate me under every event, in the prosecution 
of the present contest." Not a sentiment of despondency or 
despair was to be found in the letter ; the very handwriting 
of which indicated composure of mind. Whatever opinion we 
may entertain relative to the practicability of reducing 
America, to obedience, by force of arms, at the end of 1781, 
we must admit that no sovereign could manifest more calm- 
ness, dignity, or self-command than George HI. displayed in 
this reply. 

Severely as the general effect of the blow received in Vir- 
ginia was felt throughout the nation, yet no immediate 
symptoms of ministerial dissolution, or even of Parliamentary 



Revolutionary Incidents. 365" 

defection became visible in either House. All the ani- 
mated invectives of Fox, aided by the contumelious irony of 
Burke, and sustained by the dignified denunciations of Pitt, 
enlisted on the same side, made little apparent impression 
on their hearers, who seemed stupefied by the disastrous- 
intelligence. Yet never, probably, at any period of our his- 
tory, was more indignant language used by the opposition, or 
supported by administration. In the ardor of his feelings at 
the recent calamity beyond the Atlantic, Fox not only accused 
ministers of being virtually in the jmy of France, but men- 
aced them in the name of an undone people, who would 
speedily compel them to expiate their crimes on the public 
scaffold. Burke, with inconceivable warmth of coloring, 
depicted the folly and impracticability of taxing America by 
force, or, as he described it, " shearing the wolf." The meta- 
phor was wonderfully appropriate, and scarcely admitted of 
denial. Pitt leveled his observations principally against the 
cabinet, whom he represented as destitute of principle, wis- 
dom, or union of design. All three were sustained, and I 
had almost said, outdone, by Mr. Thomas Pitt, who, in terms 
of gloomy despondency, seemed to regard the situation of the 
country as scarcely admitting of a remedy, under such a Par- 
liament, such ministers, and such a sovereign. Lord North, 
in this moment of general depression, found resources within 
himself — he scornfully repelled the insinuations of Fox, as 
deserving only contempt ; justified the principles of the war, 
which did not originate in a despotic wish to tyrannize over 
America, but from the desire of maintaining the constitutional 
authority of Parliament over the colonies ; deplored in com- 
mon with the opposition, the misfortunes which had marked 
the progress of the contest ; defied the threat of punishment ; 
and finally adjured the House not to aggravate the present 
calamity by dejection or despair, but by united exertion, to 
secure our national extrication. 

Such a picture of the consternation of the British Court, 
on hearing this disastrous news of the ignominious wreck of 
a second army in America, has never before been furnished 
to the public eye ; and significantly suggests how the stento- 
rian words of " Sam," " I am master here !" rung porten- 
tously even at that early period, in the ears of the hoary and. 
feeble despotisms of the Old World. 



S64 Historical and ^ 

" Sam '' was now a freeman ; and *' youngling " as he was, 
the weight of his ponderous limbs had, even through the 
storm and crash of battle, made verge and room enough 
whereon to stretch themselves at ease on their "old couch 
of space." 



irt'iLuf,^^!'' 










CHAPTER XXIV. 

Trouble with the Indians — Tecumseh's League — General Harrison — Battles 
with the Indians — The British treat with them — Death of Tecumseh. 

John Bull seems to have had enough of '• Sam," after the 
surrender of Cornwallis, to stay his stomach for the present. 
That portly gentleman would appear now to have come to 
the conclusion, that he had counted rather much upon the 
respect due to age, plethora, and gout, and to have become 
rapidly more philosophical, and more reasonable in his views, 
as to his own, and the rights of others. The future con- 
queror of Napoleon had been soundly thrashed by a big baby, 
to be sure, but what of that? — many a kind, but uxorious 
father had been conquered by big babies before, through the 
excess of his parental feeling — and where was the shame ? 
It was all human nature, to say the most of it. Babies will 
be fractious, and fathers will be fond. And the more John 
reasoned, and philosophised, the more reasonable and philo- 
sophical he became, of course — until finally the bright idea 
illuminated his brain, through the fumy fog of after-dinner 
Port, and cigar, that it might be well to let the poor " young- 
ling" up, since he had beaten him with sufficient severity 
for this, his first fall, and hoped, in the gracious serenity of 
his more contemplative and propitious mood, that the rude, 
but willful, though not contumacious boy, might still have 
some elements of submission and reformation in him. And 
John grinned with a grim smile, as he hitched up the already 
nearly bursting waistband, which heaved with the tliroes of 
beef, plum-pudding, and paternal sentiment. Ha ! ha ! ha ! 
the wild, young dog ! I '11 let him up now, but may be the 

31* 365 



B66 Historical and 

next time, I have occasion to lay my hand upon him, his 
mother won't know him, when I 'm done with him ! 

But as Mrs. Bull was not present, to say whether she 
thought it likely she would, this important historical problem 
must remain through all time a solemn mystery, to be solved 
by some transcendental historian of the Bancroft order, in 
some remote era of the "spiritual" regime, which is now so 
rapidly approaching. 

Certainly John Bull proved himself in earnest in the apos- 
tolic threat of the " laying on of hands," some short time 
afterward — as we shall see — and we shall see, too, the 
result. 

But " Sam," fortunately, was of the philosophic tempera- 
ment too, — by inheritance, no doubt — and remained very 
meekly contented with the drubbing he had received, and a 
little unimportant concession of liberty to do as he pleased 
hereafter. To be sure he found himself with an empty 
treasury, a plundered, ravaged continent, a half-rebellious 
people at his disposal, but managed with a remarkable pla- 
cidity, through the easy temperament for which he is noted, 
to reconcile himself — with what John Bull would have called 
a vainglorious contemplation of the manifold trophies of two 
entire captured armies, and the paltry pittance, for which he 
was obviously indebted to paternal magnanimity, of a per- 
petual fief to lands, demense rents, etc., to which he naturally 
considered himself, in all humility, somewhat entitled, by 
virtue of " Squatter Sovereignty." To be sure, " Sam" had 
never been a tailor, except in the Eve and Adam sense, or 
the " Rough and Ready " — and therefore, could not be strictly 
considered a " squatter." As it was, we proceeded very meekly 
to organize a government, and weld a constitution, the iron 
hinges of which have as yet successfully resisted the shock 
•of all elemental forces, which have been brought combined 
against it. 

This achievement, though, no doubt, owing to the inspira- 
tion of filial gratitude, solely, and the sentiment of thank- 
fulness for his full release, through the gracious and benign 
magnanimity of his new-found and portly sire — for we had 
thought " Sam " the child of the elements solely — neverthe- 
less placed him in a position among the nations of the earthy 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 367 

which caused Old Empire to verily ^are at the Young Mon- 
strosity. 

The Federal Constitution organized, America an independ- 
dent nation of the earth, and Washington inaugurated as 
president, we must leave the intervening period to other his- 
tories, and make a long stride to that of the war of 1812 
with Tecumseh. 

The pressure of Bonaparte's commercial system, not con- 
fined to the civilized world, was felt even by the wild tribes 
■of the North American forests. The price of furs, in conse- 
quence of their exclusion from the Continent of Europe, their 
chief market, had sunk so low that the Indian hunters found 
their means of purchase from the traders greatly curtailed. 
The rapid extension of settlements north of the Ohio had not 
only occasioned an alarming diminution of game, but, in the 
facilities afforded for the introduction of whisky, had inflicted 
a still greater evil on the Indians. Among those tribes, 
Delawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, Miamis, and, further to the 
northwest, Ottowas, Potawatomies, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, 
and Chippewas, a remarkable influence had of late been 
established by two twin brothers of the Shawanese tribe, who 
possessed between them all the qualities held in greatest 
esteem by the Indians. Tecumseh was an orator and a war- 
rior, active, intrepid, crafty, and unscrupulous. His brother, 
commonly known as The Prophet, was not only an orator, but 
a " medicine man " of the highest pretensions, claiming to 
hold direct intercourse with the Great Spirit, and to possess 
miraculous powers. He announced himself as specially sent, 
and instructed to require of the red men, as a first step 
toward a return to their ancient prosperity, to renounce all 
those innovations borrowed from the whites, more especially 
the use of whisky, which had made them the slaves of the 
traders. But these denunciations were not limited to the 
vices borrowed from the white men ; they were equally lev- 
elled at those approaches to civilization, and those new reli- 
gious opinions, which the agents of the government on the 
one hand, and a few missionaries on the other, had been 
laboring to introduce. 

Separating himself from his own tribe, which was slow, at 
first, in recognizing his mission, the Prophet had established 
(1806) a village of his own at Greenville, near the western 



368 Historical and 

border of Ohio, on lands already ceded to the United States.. 
Meanwhile Tecumseh traveled from tribe to tribe, spreading 
everywhere his brother's fame. While the Prophet's imme- 
diate followers, engrossed in their religious exercises, were 
often on the verge of starvation, it was reported, and believed 
at a distance, that he could make pumpkins as big as a wig- 
wam spring out of the ground at a single word, along with 
stalks of corn, of which a single ear would suffice to feed a 
dozen men. Denounced by the chiefs of their own and 
the neighboring tribes as impostors, they retorted by charges 
of subserviency to the whites, and even of witchcraft, a very 
terrible accusation among the Indians, under which they pro- 
cured the death of two or three hostile Delaware Chiefs. It 
was, however, among the more remote tribes that the greater 
part of their convicts were obtained ; and this, perhaps, was 
one reason why the Prophet, in the summer of 1808, removed 
his village to the Tippecanoe, a northern branch of the Upper 
Wabash, a spot belonging to the Miarais and Delawares, but 
which he occupied in spite of their opposition. At this new 
village, disciples and spectators flocking in from all sides, the 
Prophet continued to celebrate his appointed seasons of fasting 
and exhortations: religious exercises, which were intermin- 
gled with or followed by warlike sports, such as shooting with 
bows, by which the rifle was to be superseded, and wielding 
the stone tomahawk or war-club, ancient Indian weapons, 
before the hatchet was known. 

These military exercises, and an alleged secret intercourse 
with the British traders and agents, had drawn upon the 
Prophet and his brother the suspicions of Harrison, governor 
of the Indiana Territory, and superintendent of Indian 
affairs; but these suspicions were, in a great measure, dis- 
pelled by a visit which the Prophet paid to Vincennes, in 
which he assumed the character of a Avarm friend of peace, 
his sole object being, as he declared, to reform the Indians, 
and especially to put a stop to the use of whisky. Not long 
after this visit, Harrison held a treaty at Fort Wayne with 
the Delawares, Potawatomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, Weas, and 
Eel Eiver Indians, at which, in consideration of annuities 
amounting to ^2350, and of presents in hand to the value of 
^8200, he obtained a cession of lands extending up the 
Wabash above Terre Haute, and including the middle waters 



Kevolutionaky Incidents. 8(59 

of Wliite river. Neither the Prophet nor the tribe to which 
he belonged had any claim to these lands, except, indeed, 
under a doctrine which he had lately set up, that all the 
Indian lands belonged to all the tribes in common, and that 
none could be sold without the consent of all. On this 
ground the Prophet and his brother denounced the late 
treaty as void, and they threatened to kill all the chiefs 
concerned in making it — a threat the more formidable, in 
consequence of tlie accession to the Prophet's party, at this 
moment, of the Wyandots, a tribe on Lake Erie, not numer- 
ous, but famous warriors, and regarded with great respect by 
all the northwestern tribes, who called them uncles. 

In consequence of new reports of intended hostilities, Har- 
rison invited the Prophet and his brother to a new interview, 
which took place in a field just outside the village of Vin- 
cennes. Though requested not to bring more than thirty 
followers, Tecumseh came attended by some four hundred 
warriors. The governor, surrounded by several hundred of 
the unarmed townspeople, was seated in a chair, attended by 
the jduges of the Territory, by several oiBcers of the army, 
and by Winnemack, a friendly Potawatomie chief, who had 
on this, as on other occasions, given notice of Tecumseh's 
designs. Under some trees on the border of the field were 
placed a sergeant and twelve men from the fort. The 
Indians, who sat in a semicircle on the grass, had left their 
rifles at their camp, but they had their tomahawks by them. 

Tecumseh, in his opening speech, fully avowed the design 
of himself and his brother to establish, by a combination 
among the tribes, the principle of no more cessions of Indian 
lands except by general consent. He admitted a determina- 
tion to kill all the chiefs concerned in the late treaty, but 
disavowed any intention to make war upon the whites, and 
denounced those who had accused him of it as liars. This 
was aimed at Winnemack, whom Tecumseh overwhelmed 
with a torrent of reproaches, and who, as he sat on the 
ground, near Harrison's chair, secretly charged a pistol, and 
held it concealed, ready for use. 

Harrison, in reply, ridiculed Tecumseh's assertions that 
the Great Spirit had intended the Indians to be one people : 
for, if so, why had he put diflferent tongues into their heads? 



370 Historical and 

Why had he not given them one language, which all might 
understand ? The land in dispute had been bought of the 
Miamis, whose fathers had owned it while the Shawanese 
lived in Georgia ; and the sale had been consented to by all 
the tribes who by occupancy had any claim. They had seen 
fit to sell the land, and what business had the Shawanese to 
interpose ? Here the governor paused for the interpreter to 
repeat to the Indians what he had said, in the midst of which 
Tecumseh broke in, declaring, with violent gesticulations, 
that the governor's statements were false, and that he and 
the United States had cheated and imposed upon the Indians. 
As he went on with increased vehemence, his warriors sprang 
upon their feet and began to brandish their tomahawks. 
Harrison started from his chair and drew his sword, as did 
the officers who stood by ; Winnemack cocked his pistol ; and 
the unarmed citizens caught up such missiles as came to hand, 
principally brickbats from an ancient kiln. The guard of 
soldiers came running up, and were about to fire, but were 
checked by the governor, who asked the interpreters what 
was the matter. Being told what Tecumseh had said, Har- 
rison pronounced him a bad man, with whom he would hold 
no further conferciice. As he had come under the protection 
of the council fire, he might depart in safety, but he must 
instantly leave the neighborhood. Thereupon the council 
broke up, and Tecumseh retired to his camp. 

The people of Vincennes stood to their arms, expecting an 
attack that night. But, changing his tactics, Tecumseh the 
next morning expressed the greatest regret at the violence 
into which he had been betrayed, and requested and obtained 
another interview. This time his deportment was dignified 
and collected. He denied any intention of using force, 
ascribing the demonstration of the day before to the advice of 
white men — and Harrison had enemies in the Territory, wno 
had accused him of having cheated the Indians — by whom ne 
had been told that, if he made a vigorous opposition to the 
treaty, the governor would be recalled, and the land given 
up. But, though he disclaimed any hostile intentions, upon 
being asked whether he meant to interfere wdth the survey 
of the land, he significantly replied that he should adhere 
to the old boundary. He was followed by a Wyandot, a 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 371 

Potawatomie, an Ottawa, a Kickapoo, and a Winnebago, all of 
whom declared their adherence, and that of their tribes, to 
the new confederacy. 

Anxious to ascertain Tecumseh's real feelings and inten- 
tions, Harrison paid him a visit in his camp. He expressed, 
on this occasion, great reluctance to go to war with the 
Americans, and promised, if the recent cessions Avere given 
up, and the principle adopted of taking no more land from 
the Indians without the consent of all the tribes, to be a 
faithful ally, and to assist the Americans in any war with 
the British ; otherwise, though well aware that the pretended 
friendship of the British was all for their own purposes, he 
should be obliged to join them. Harrison, though he held 
out no hope of success, promised to lay the matter before 
the President. 

Numerous complaints, some months after, from the frontier, 
of horses stolen, houses plundered, and even alleged murders, 
caused Harrison to send word to Tecumseh that, if he did not 
put a stop to these outrages, he might expect to be attacked. 
Tecumseh replied by a personal visit, but with no satisfactory 
result. Shortly after, he started on a journey to the South, 
in hope to bring the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws into 
his confederacy. Among the Creeks especially he might 
hope for some influence, as his mother had belonged to that 
tribe. 

Harrison had suggested to the administration the estab- 
lishment of a post high up the Wabash, and they had pro- 
posed the seizing of Tecumseh and his brother as hostages 
for peace. Boyd's regiment of regular infantry had been 
for some time stationed at Pittsburgh, with a viev/ to possi- 
ble operations in the West. Fresh complaints coming from 
the Illinois Territory, Boyd was directed to place himself 
under Harrison's command. Harrison was authorized, should 
the Prophet commence or threaten hostilities, to attack him, 
and to call out militia for that purpose ; but considering the 
threatening state of relations with Great Britain, mucli anx- 
iety was at the same time expressed for the preservation of 
peace. The people of Vincennes and its neighborhood, 
dreaded being suddenly attacked at any time. They were 
eager to strike a decisive blow ; and, though somewhat em- 
barrassed by his orders, Harrison thought that policy the 



372 Historical and 

best. With Boyd's regiment, about three hundred strong, 
and some five hundred militia, partly from Kentucky, includ- 
ing two or three mounted companies, advancing some sixty 
miles up the Wabash to Terre Haute, he established a post 
there, named after himself ; and thence he dispatched some 
Delaware chiefs, that tribe still remaining friendly, on a 
mission to the Prophet. These messengers were very ill 
received, and were dismissed with insults and contempt. The 
troops then advanced, and, after eight days' cautious march, 
encamped within ten miles of the Prophet's town. The 
march being resumed the next day, small parties of Indians 
began to appear, with whom it was in vain attempted to 
communicate ; but within three miles of the town, some 
chiefs came forward, who asked the meaning of this hostile 
movement ; urged the Prophet's desire for peace ; and ob- 
tained a halt, and the appointment of a council for the mor- 
row. The army encamped in a hollow square, surrounded 
by a chain of sentinels, the troops sleeping on their arms, 
with orders, if attacked, to maintain their position at all 
hazards. Just befoi'e daybreak — the light of the moon, then 
in its third quarter, obscured by clouds, with an occasional 
drizzle of rain — an alarm was given by the discharge of a 
gun by one of the sentinels, followed by the Indian yell, 
and a desperate rush and heavy fire upon the left rear angle 
of the camp. The Indians had crept close to the sentinels, 
designing to overpower them by surprise. The men stood at 
once to their arms. All the camp-fires were immediately 
extinguished, lest they might serve to guide the aim of the 
Indians. The attack soon extended to almost the whole 
square, the Indians advancing and retiring at a signal made 
by the rattling of deer's hoofs. Not being able to break 
the square, and being charged, soon after daylight, by the 
mounted men, they presently disappeared, carrying oif their 
wounded, but leaving forty dead on the field. This battle, 
for the present, ended the war with the Indians, until Te- 
cumseh, after the declaration of the war of 1812, formed 
an alliance with the English, when it was resumed with all 
its terror. The final death of Tecumseh, which occurred 
soon after, at the battle of the Thames, broke up the formi- 
dable alliance among ten Indian tribes, of which he was the 
head, and defeated, finally, his grand and masterly schepie, 



EeVOLUTIONARY lNCIDb:NTS. 373 

■ot , <nihilating the entire western settlements, by a combi- 
nation of all the savage tribes of the West and North. 

The death of Tecumseh, in this battle, was in reality one 
of the gieat events of western history. The circumstances 
of his fall, of which so great use has been made for paltry 
political ends, which attributed it to the prowess of Colonel 
Eichard M. Johnson, that Ethiop-loving demagogue of the 
democracy, have been, for the first time, properly delineated 
in our cut. He was undoubtedly slain by Colonel Whitley, 
of the Kentucky mounted men, in a single-hand conflict, 
and we have furnished a correct portrait of the noble horse 
which he rode on the occasion, and which, wounded by the 
last shot from the pistol of Tecumseh, survived, and finally 
came into the possession of the father of the present nar- 
rator. This event virtually ended the war, in this direction. 

This expedition gave rise to abundant discussions. Har- 
rison's consenting to suspend his march ; his selection of a 
camp so near the Indians ; his . omission to fortify it, for 
which the want of axes was pleaded in excuse ; and his con- 
duct also during the battle, were all very closely canvassed. 
A dispute also arose, as to whether the merits of the repulse 
belonged to him or to Boyd. Harrison, however, was sus- 
tained, and his conduct approved by the President, and by 
resolutions of the Legislatures of Kentucky and Indiana; 
and such was the general impression throughout the West, 
as to give him a decided military reputation. 

The question of war with Great Britain, which it is well 
remembered turned solely upon the question of embargo, 
and the right of impressment, which Johnny Bull, with the 
full recollection of his reserved, apostolic right of the "lay- 
ing on of hands," claimed that ho possessed the power of 
enforcing, to the virtual ruin of our national commerce and 
navy, caused immense discussion, in which the most brilliant 
of the children of " Sam " developed their finest powers of 
oratory and invective, pro and con. 

Eandolph, with his fierce wit and demoniac satire, stood 
like the incarnate ghost of famine, in the halls of our Con- 
gress, hurling savage epithets at the heads of the promoters 
of the war ; shaking his spectral finger, with terrible de- 
nunciations, at the eloquent and subtle Clay, whose clarion 
voice, the very music of war, had roused our people to battle 
32 



374 Historical and 

against the predominating insolence of British naval ascend 
ancy. But Randolph squeaked his dire epithets in vain — a 
stronger spell than he could wake was upon the hearts of 
the people — and, in spite of Tories, Jesuits, and Quakers, 
the nation rose up as one man, and drove the vaunted tyrant 
of the seas from our waters, more humiliated than ever. 

This time pursy John Bull did " give up the ship ; " Sam " 
had thrashed him on the land hefore, and now it became 
necessary to thrash him on the sea, which, in the glorious 
battles of the Constitution and the Guerriere, the United 
States and the Macedonian, the Wasp and the Hornet, he 
quickly demonstrated, that on whatever element he chose to 
carry his arms and his commerce, they should be respected. 
Nor did he find it necessary to bombard any Greytowns, at 
that, or perform any other such superlative heroics. 

Now, too, culminated the reputations of Jackson, Harri- 
son, and Scott — stalwart men, all, and good generals. The 
first, the greatest, and strongest since Washington, the man 
of iron will and lofty aim, the rude, unlettered hero of the 
savage West ! the gaunt Titan of modern pigmies of demo- 
cracy ! Who can forget his long career of opposition and 
dauntless conquest against aggressions of all kinds, whether 
military, political, or social? 

It would be impossible for us, within our narrow limits, to 
follow up, in detail, the incidents of this important war. 
We can do nothing more than glance at some of its impor- 
tant events. We will only mention, that throughout its 
entire course, the whole conduct of John Bull exhibited a 
most unrelenting determination to consummate the purposes 
of his avowed vengeance. 

In doing tliis, he scrupled at no intrigue, however infa- 
mous, no strategy, however brutal, and no afliliation, how- 
ever debasing. He, without hesitation, sought the aid of 
the French Jesuits, whom he hated and feared more than 
any other power, except that of the recreant " Sam," upon 
whom he was sworn to be avenged ; and, through their 
agency, he formed treaties with the savage tribes of the con- 
tinent, over whom they had now obtained ascendancy, north 
and south, made them the medium of his revengeful largess 
in arms, ammunition, and money, and thus turned them 
loose from every " Reduction " — the cordon of which had 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 376 

now been completed by tlie intrigues of these holy fathers, 
who gladly availed themselves of such temporary alliance 
with their old foes, to wreak their own hoarded vengeance 
against tlie Protestant cause. 

Thus inflamed, the sanguinary savages of the entire con- 
tinent were turned loose upon the women and children of 
our vast and defenseless borders, and the war assumed many 
aspects of tomahawk and scalping-knife horror, which had 
remained, until now, to assume their full sanguinary 
coloring. 

The battle in which Perry so singularly defeated the 
entire naval force of John Bull, upon the Northern Lakes, 
was the first and most important check which his hired bri- 
gands received during the war. Jackson's operations con- 
summated, by the battle of the Great Horse-shoe Bend, and 
the submission of the Creeks inforced a peace with the 
Southern Indians. 

Brown's invasion of Canada, and the battle of Chippewa, 
in which the young Scott distinguished himself, and the 
battle of Bridgewater,-and the siege of Fort Erie, followed 
in rapid succession. The march on Washington, the battle 
of Bladensburg, and the attack and defense of Baltimore, 
which rapidly succeeded the capture of the capital, were soon 
followed by the advance on and the battle of Plattsburg, and 
the retreat of the British, which virtually ended tlie war in 
the North. 

Then came the battle of New Orleans, of which we shall 
give some more detailed account. 

Previous to Jackson's arrival at New Orleans, everything 
had remained there, intervening dilapidations excepted, in 
the same condition in which Wilkinson had left it, a stop 
having been put, immediately after his departure, to every 
measure of defense which he had commenced. The total 
population of Louisiana did not exceed one hundred thousand, 
of whom half were slaves or free people of color. New 
Orleans had about twenty thousand, of whom less than half 
were whites. Of these whites a large portion were French 
Creoles, while there were also many adventurers of foreign 
birth, whose attachment to the United States was not impli- 
citly relied upon. The adjoining districts of Mississippi con- 
tained not above forty thousand inhabitants, of whom half 



376 Historical and 

were slaves. In consequence of communications sent by 
General Jackson from Mobile, Governor Claiborne had 
ordered all the militia of Louisiana to hold themselves in 
resdiness for instant service, those of the city to exercise 
twice a week, and those of the country half as often. A 
public meeting* was soon after called in New Orleans and a 
committee of defense organized, of which Edward Livingston 
was appointed chairman. Having recovered possession at 
last of his batture, Livingston had begun to rise above the 
wave of obloquy with which he had been so long overwhelmed ; 
but he was still so unpopular, and such were the local jeal- 
ousies and quarrels, that another and rival committee of 
defense was presently organized. Determined to avail him- 
self of every means of defense, Jackson issued from Mobile 
an affectionate address to " the noble-hearted, generous, free 
men of color." Repudiating the mistaken policy which had 
hitherto excluded them from the military service, he called 
on them to enroll themselves in a distinct ■ corps — a call to 
which they quickly responded, under an act of the Louisiana 
legislature, called together in special session, and by which 
a joint committee of defense was appointed, apparently, how- 
ever, with very little hopes that any very serious attack 
could be withstood. 

The arrival of Jackson, who was soon followed by a few 
regulars from Mobile, served to give some encouragement. 
But he saw at once that he must rely for defense mainly on 
exterior resources ; nor were there any to which he could 
look except Coffee's brigade, which, after the expulsion of 
the British from Pensacola, he had ordered to march for the 
Mississippi, and other detachments of militia from Kentucky 
and Tennessee, called for some time before, and expected 
down the river, but which, as yet, had scarcely set out. Such, 
in fact, was the poverty and disorganization of the quarter- 
master's department in the West, that the Kentucky troops 
had only been enabled to embark, by the credit of individual 
citizens pledged for the necessary supplies. Intent to aug- 
ment his forces by all means, Jackson accepted the aid of 
Lafitte and a portion of the Baratarian buccaneers, who again 
tendered their services on condition of pardon. The convicts, 
also, in the prison, were released and embodied. 

A flat-bottomed frigate, commenced by Wilkinson, and 



Eevolutionary Incidents, 377 

which would have been invaluable at the present moment, 
lay unfinished on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The 
only naval force on that lake and Lake Borgne, was five gun- 
boats and a small schooner ; these, with a few other gun-boats 
and barges in the Mississippi, the schooner Carolina of four- 
teen guns, and the ship Louisiana of sixteen, the latter just 
taken into service, constituted the whole naval means of 
defending the water approaches. While Jackson was inspect- 
ing the forts St. Philip and Leon, which guarded the ascent 
of the river, news reached New Orleans that the expected 
British fleet had anchored at Cat Island, off* the entrance of 
Lake Borgne. The force on board, without counting four 
thousand sailors and marines, amounted, as it afterward 
appeared, to twelve thousand men, commanded by Packing- 
ham, Keene, Lambert, and Gibbs, able and experienced gen- 
erals of Wellington's late Peninsular army, whence, also, the 
troops had mostly been drawn. Some forty or fifty British 
barges succeeded after a hard fight, in capturing the Amer- 
ican flotilla on Lake Borgne, thus laying open the passage 
io New Orleans ; and about the same time, the post called 
the Balize, at the entrance of the river, with all the pilots 
stationed there, fell into the enemy's hands. 

The Louisiana militia were at once called into the field ; 
but a serious difficulty arose from the want of arms. Jack- 
son, some months before, had called for a supply from the 
arsenal at Pittsburg ; but, from an unwillingness to pay the 
freight demanded by the only steamer which then navigated 
the Mississippi-, these necessary means of defense had been 
shipped in keel boats, nor did they arrive till the fate of the 
city had been decided. Even the muskets on hand would 
have been useless, but for a supply of flints furnished by 
Lafitte, the Baratarian pirate. The Legislature passed an 
act extending for four months the payment of all bills and 
notes ; but they hesitated to suspend the habeas corpus act : 
whereupon Jackson, under whose command Governor Clai- 
borne had placed himself and the militia, took the responsi- 
bility of proclaiming martial law. 

Expresses had already been sent up the river, to get news, 

if possible, of Coffee's brigade, and of the militia expected 

from Tennessee and Kentucky. Coffee, after encountering 

great hardships from excessive rains and short supplies, had 

32* 



378 Historical and 

reached the neighborhood of Baton Eoiige about the time 
that the British appeared off Cat Island. On receiving Jack- 
son's orders, he had marched with one thousand three hundred 
and fifty men, leaving three hundred sick behind, and push- 
ing forward himself with eight hundred of the best mounted, 
he accomplished the distance of one hundred and fifty miles 
in two days, encamping on the third within four miles of the 
city. A body of Mississippi dragoons, which had marched 
from Mobile about the same time, arrived shortly after. On 
news of Carroll's approach with the additional Tennessee 
militia, the steamboat which had just arrived from Pittsburg 
had been sent to bring them down ; and Jackson thus found 
himself at the head of five thousand men, of whom somewhat 
less than a thousand were regulars. 

Meanwhile the British Army, advancing in their light 
transports to the head of Lake Borgne, under the pilotage of 
some Italian fishermen who dwelt in that neighborhood, found 
a water passage by the Bayou Bienvenu, to within a short 
distance of the Mississippi, of which the left bank, about 
fifteen miles below New Orleans, was gained by General 
Keene with an advanced party of two thousand light troops. 
This approach from the front was a fortunate circumstance ; 
had the British advanced by Lake Pontchartrain, thus cutting 
off the communication of New Orleans with the country above, 
the result might have been very different. 

As soon as Jackson was informed of this lodgment, leaving 
Carroll and the Louisiana country militia to cover the city, 
he marched to meet the enemy, taking with him the regu- 
lars, the city militia. Coffee's brigade dismounted, and the 
Mississippi dragoons. The British left rested on the river, 
exposed to the fire of the schooner Carolina. Coffee was 
detached to gain their right, while Jackson, with the rest of 
the troops, and two pieces of artillery, advanced on their 
front. It was dark before the action began, a circumstance 
favorable in some respects to the raw American troops, but 
preventing co-operation, and producing some confusion. The 
attack was made with vigor. The British, greatly annoyed 
by the fire of the schooner, were driven to take several new 
positions ; but at last they got into a very strong one, between 
an old levee, which covered them from the schooner, and a 
new one, raised within, which guarded their right ; and 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 379- 

f> 
h ding that this position could not be forced, Jackson retired 
With a loss of two hundred and twenty-three in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners. The enemy's loss was rather 
greater. The next day Jackson took up a position behind a 
deep trench, running from the river to the swamp, at a point 
where the solid land between was less than a mile in Veadth, 
a position naturally strong, and which every effort was made 
to strengthen. Just as the late action closed, the British 
had been joined by a new division from their ships ; but, 
alarmed at the warm reception they had met, and ignorant 
of Jackson's force, which the American prisoners greatly 
exaggerated, instead of pressing forward at once, which would 
have been their best chance, they waited to bring up rein- 
forcements and artillery. This interval was diligently 
employed by Jackson in strengthening his position, bales of 
cotton being used to form a rampart, which, as well as the 
ditch in front of it, was extended into the swamp. A British 
battery, established on the levee, succeded in destroying the 
Carolina by hot shot, but the Louisiana was saved, and towed 
out of reach. The next day the enemy advanced in force, 
driving in Jackson's outposts, and having approached within 
a half a mile of his lines, they opened upon them with artil- 
lery, bombs, and Congreve rockets. Jackson had five pieces 
of heavy artillery already mounted, and served by the crew 
of the Carolina. These guns, aided by the raking fire of 
the Louisiana, checked the enemy's advance, and after a seven 
hours' cannonade, he retired with considerable loss. 

As matters thus approached a crisis, Jackson and Claiborne 
were not a little troubled at the apprehension of treachery 
within the city. Fulwar Skip worth, who, from having been 
governor of tlie late insurgent republic of West Florida, was. 
now speaker of the Louisiana Senate, had made some inqui- 
ries of Major Butler, left in command at Now Orleans, as to 
the trath of a rumor, that, rather than surrender, Jackson 
would destroy the city and retire up the river, from which, 
and other circumstances, it was conjectured. that the Legisla- 
ture might intend to save the city by offering to capitulate. 
Jackson directed Clairborne, in case any move was made in 
that direction, to arrrest the members of the Legislature ; an 
order to which Claiborne gave such an interpretation, con- 
trary, it was afterward said, to Jackson's intentions, that^ 



380 Historical and 

without waiting to see whether there were any grounds for 
his suspicions, he placed a military guard at the door of the 
hall, and broke up the legislative session. Jackson also 
authorized a general search of houses and stores for arms, 
and, to prevent any skulking from militia duty, he directed 
a registration of all the male inhabitants. 

With the commencement of the new year, the enemy 
renewed his attack with more and heavier artillery ; but, in 
the interval, the works had been much strengthened ; and, 
after a heavy cannonade, the British guns were dismounted 
and silenced. Jackson's preparations for defense were not 
confined to the left bank of the river. By the Bay of Bara- 
taria and the inlets connected with it, the bank opposite the 
-city might be approached, without passing the forts on the 
river ; and to guard against attack from that quarter, Gen- 
eral Morgan had been sent across, with orders to throw up 
defenses like those on the eastern side. At last the lono^ 
expected Kentuckians arrived — 2250 men, led by General 
Adair, that old friend of Burr's — ^but half of them were 
without arms, which Jackson could not furnish. Detachments 
of these Kentuckians and of the Louisiana militia were sent 
to join Morgan, whose force was thus raised to 1500 men, 
stationed behind an intrenchment, defended by several brass 
twelves and by a battery of twenty four-pounders, commanded 
by Commodore Patterson. The men without arms were em- 
ployed by Jackson upon a second line of intrenchments, as a 
place of rally should he be driven from his first line. 

Preparations had meanwhile been made by the British for 
a grand attack. Boats having been drawn, with great labor, 
from the bayou into the river. Colonel Thornton was sent 
across in the night, with a British detachment, to assault 
Morgan. At the same time, under the fire of a battery of 
sis eighteen pounders, erected also during the night, the 
main body, led by Packenham in person, advanced to storm 
Jackson's position. " Boot}^ and beauty," such was the watch- 
word; comment enough on British military morals. One 
column marched by the river, and, without much difficulty, 
carried an advanced redoubt, by the guns of which the 
approach to the American line was raked through its whole 
extent. The other and main column, led by Gibbs and 
Keene, approached that part of the American line nearest 



JRevolutionary Incidents. 381 

c 

to the fatal fire of the Tennessee sharp-shooters, and of nine- 
pieces of 1; 'avy artillery, was speedily thrown into confusion. 
Packing-ham, in attempting to restore order, was killed ; the 
other two generals were wounded, Gibbs mortally ; and after 
an hour's struggle, and two unsuccessful advances, Lambert, 
who succeeded to the command, was obliged to withdraw, at 
the same time abandoning the redoubt on the river, which the 
other column had carried. Thornton, on the opposite bank, not- 
withstanding some delay in his advance, had proved entirely 
successful, and the position he had gained would have given 
great advantao-e for renewino: the attack. But the British 
army had lost two thousand men in killed and wounded ; and 
Lambert, dreading still further disasters, hastened to with- 
draw Thornton's troops, and to abandon the whole enterprise. 
Having taken all proper precautions to cover his retreat, he 
first fell back to the original landing place on Lake Borgne, 
from which point the army was presently re-embarked. 
Jackson's loss was but trifling, only seventy-one on both 
sides of the river, while his total loss in the campaign had 
been but three hundred and thirty-three. But with his raw 
troops, whose flight before Thornton had shown how little they 
could be depended on, he did not choose to risk anything in 
attempting to intercept the enemy's retreat, who, retiring 
first to Cat Island, proceeded thence, as if not to fail entirely, 
to the attack and captui'e of Fort Bowyer. About the same 
time the enemy withdrew from the coast of Georgia ; but 
not until they had caused a proclamation of martial law, and 
had thrown that State, and South Carolina also, into a par- 
oxysm of alarm. 

Rumors of Jackson's successes beginning to arrive at 
Washington, successes which the administration, so far as 
anything had been done by them, had very little right to 
expect, came like an exhilarating cordial to the baffled and 
mortified war party. Confirmations, with additional particu- 
lars, continued to arrive, and to be welcomed with the loudest 
exultations ; but, before the whole story was known, the 
public attention was drawn off to a fresh piece of news, of 
even greater interest and importance. 

The British sloop of war Favorite, arriving at New York 
under a flag of truce, brought two messengers, one British, 



382 Historical and 

the other American, bearers of an unexpected treaty of peace, 
already ratified by the British government. It vras late of a 
•Saturday night ; but no sooner was the joyful word peace cir- 
culated through the city — and it ;3pread like electricity — than, 
without stopping to inquire or to think about the tei'ms, the 
whole active population, of all parties, rushed into the streets 
in a perfect ecstasy of delight ; and, amid shouts, illumina- 
tions, and a perfect uproar of joy, expresses were sent oflf, 
north and south, with the news. In thirty-two hours (thought 
to be a great ett'ort of speed) the announcement reached 
Boston, where it was received on Monday morning with the 
most clamorous rejoicings. All the bells were at once set to 
ringing ; messengers were despatched in every direction to 
spread the delightful intelligence ; tbe schools received a 
holyday; the whole population, quitting their employments, 
hastened to congratulate each other at this relief, not only 
from foreign war, but from the still more dreadful impending- 
cloud of internal and civil struggle. Tlie blockaded shipping, 
rotting forlorn at the wharves, got out all their flags and 
streamers, and, before night, once more the hum of commerce 
sounded, ship-carpenters and riggers were busy at work, car- 
goes were being shipped, and crews engaged. The joy was 
the same along the whole maritime frontier ; nor, however 
they might strive to conceal their emotions, was it less among 
the politicians at Washington, including these most forward 
to precipitate their country into a struggle so unequal and 
disastrous. At the same time they made a very dexcerous 
use of the sudden halo of glory diffused by Jackson's victory, 
to conceal from themselves, as well as from the people, the 
desperate point to which affairs had been reduced. Troup 
had the audacity to congratulate the House even before the 
contents of the treaty were known, it having but just been 
laid before the Senate, on the glorious termination of the 
most glorious war ever waged by any people — provided, as he 
cautiously added, that the treaty should prove an honora- 
ble one ! 

The weakness of the British possessions in North America ; 
the necessity of some barrier against that ambitious spirit 
admirals and vice-admirals failed, as the same proposal 
has often done since, but an important change was made in 



Revolutionary Incidents. 383 

•of annexation exhibited in the acquisition of Louisiana, the 
threatened conquest of Canada, and the constant curtailment 
of the Indian territory, these had been stated by the British 
commissioners, at the opening of the negotiation, as grounds 
of their claim for an assignment to^the British Indian allies, 
of a permanent neutral territory, with a prohibition to the 
United States to establish fortresses or keep ships on the 
great lakes. The American commissioners had protested, in 
reply, against this attempted interference with the Indians, 
as a thing which the policy of Great Britain had never per- 
mitted in her own case, and as contrary to the assurances 
originally given of a disposition to treat on terms of perfect 
reciprocity. They denied, with emphasis, that the conquest 
of Canada had ever been a declared object of the war ; and 
they dwelt on the humane disposition of their government 
toward the Indians, protesting, also, against the British, 
employment of Indian auxiliaries. Finally, after some 
pretty sharp controversy, the British commissioners had 
agreed to be content with a mutual stipulation for peace 
with the Indians, the tribes still actively engaged in hostili- 
ties at the close of the war, to be resto^-ed to the same position 
in which they had stood at its commencement. This question 
disposed of by the provisional assent of the American com- 
missioners, the next related to boundaries. The false idea 
that the Mississippi had its source north of the forty-ninth 
degree of latitude, had rendered nugatory the provision of 
the treaty of 1783 as to the northern boundary of the United 
States, west of the Lake of tlie Woods. That boundary, 
indeed, since the acquisition of Louisiana, remained to be 
extended far to the west, the United States claiming, under 
that cession, even to the Pacific Ocean. The provision for a 
boundary on tlie northeast, so far as related to the territory 
between the head of the St. Croix and the head of the Con- 
necticut, had likewise failed, so the British commissioners 
contended, from similar geographical ignorance ; and, as the 
basis of a new arrangement, they had suggested that each 
party should retain what he held at the signing of the treaty. 
To this the American commissioners had refused to agree. 
So the negotiation had stood at the latest accounts previous 
+0 the arrival of the treaty of peace. 

The treaty, as signed, provided for the mutual restoration 



384 Historical and 

of all conquered territory, and for the appointment of three 
commissions : one to settle the title to the islands in Passam- 
aquoddy Bay ; another to mark out the northeastern houndary 
as far as the St. Lawrence ; and a third to run the line 
through the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to the Lake of the 
Woods. In case of disagreement in either commission, the 
poirt in dispute was to be referred to some friendly Power. 
No provision was made as to the boundary west of the Lake 
of the Woods, nor as to the fishery on the shores of British 
America. The British commissioners refused to accept, in 
return for this right of fishing, a modified renewal of the 
article fo.v the navigation of the Mississippi, which, in their 
view, was also terminated by the war. The result, therefore, 
was, that, instead of leaving the parties where they began, 
the war took away from Great Britain a nominal right, never 
used, of navigating the Mississippi, and from the New Eng- 
land fishermen a valuable right, hitherto used from the 
earliest times, of catching and curing fish on the shores of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the loss of which long continued 
to be felt. Hostilities on land were to terminate with the 
ratification of the treaty, and on the ocean in certain specified 
periods, according to distances, of which the longest was: 
four months. By some adroit management, the English 
commissioners were induced to admit into the treaty a clause 
copied from that of 1783, with the history of which probably 
they were not familiar, against carrying away " any negroes 
or other property." The only remaining article related to 
the slave trade, for the suppression of which, as irreconcilable 
with- the principles of humanity and justice, both parties 
promised to use their best endeavors. 

The treaty, liaving been unanimously ratified and formally 
promulgated, was celebrated everywhere throughout the 
country with the loudest rejoicings. Tlie Federalists, and 
all the more sensible Kepublicans, considered the country 
lucky in the peace, such as it was. The violent war men, 
greatly cooled by this time, concealed their mortification 
behind the smoke of Jackson's victory, and vague declama- 
tions about the national rights vindicated, the national char- 
acter exalted, and the military and naval glory of the war. 
Considering the new demands of Great Britain, put forward 
at Ghent, they seemed to esteem it a triumph to be allowed 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 385 

to stop where they began, leaving the whole question of 
impressments and neutral rights, the sole ostensible occasion 
of the war, without a word said on the subject, to be settled 
at some convenient opportunity: a common termination of 
wars, even for the most powerful and belligerent nations, and 
of which Great Britain herself has given more than one 
instance. 

The war thus happily ended, Dallas's bank scheme, which 
had been again revived and carried through the Senate, was 
indefinitely postponed in the House by a majority of one vote. 
Instead of the scheme of finance which he had proposed, a 
loan of ^18,400,000 was authorized, being the amount of 
treasury notes outstanding ; and, as immediate means to go 
on with, new treasury notes to the amount of twenty-five 
millions. A part of these notes, to be issued in sums under 
a hundred dollars, payable to the bearer, and without inter- 
est, were intended to serve as a currency. Those over a 
hundred dollars were to bear an interest of five and two-fifths 
per cent., — a cent and a half a day for every hundred dollars. 
Both kinds were to be receivable for all public dues, and fund- 
able at the pleasure of the holder — those bearing interest, 
in six per cent, stock, and those without interest in seven per 
cent, stock. 

Haste was made to repeal, in favor of all reciprocating 
nations, the act imposing discriminating duties on foreign 
vessels, and all remnants and remainders, if any there were, 
of the old non-intercourse and non-importation acts; also an 
act passed only a few days before, containing many strong 
provisions, some of them of very questionable constitution- 
ality, for the extinguishment of trade and intercourse with 
Great Britain. The commissioners at Ghent, before termi- 
nating their mission, signed a commercial convention for 
four years, copied substantially from Jay's treaty, but with 
an additional proviso for absolute reciprocity in the direct 
trade, by the abolition, on both sides, of all discriminations. 

Appropriations were made for rebuilding the public edifia^s 
lately burned by the British ; not, however, without a good 
deal of opposition. Rhea proposed to encircle the ruins of 
the Capitol with an iron balustrade, to let the ivy grow over 
them, and to place on their front, in letters of brass, this 
inscription: "Americans! This is the efffct of British 
33 



386 Historical and 

barbarism ! Let us swear eternal hatred to England !" Many 
of the Southern members were quite electrified by this burst 
of patriotic indignation ; but the effect passed rapidly away, 
as it occurred to them that Khea was a Pennsylvanian, 
anxious to have the seat of government removed to Phila- 
delphia or Lancaster. 

Jefferson had offered a library of some seven thousand 
volumes, which he had been all his life collecting, to supply 
the place of that burned by the British ; but the appropria- 
tion for this purpose did not pass without violent opposition. 
It was proposed to pay for these books about thirty thousand 
dollars — more, no doubt, than they would have sold for, 
though probably not much more than they had cost. But 
this act of mutual accommodation — for Jefferson needed the 
money — was violently denounced by many of the Federalists 
as an approach to a system of pensions. The same objection 
defeated a bill to pay to the destitute family of Vice Presi- 
dent Gerry, who had died during the session, his salary for 
the remainder of the year. A vast deal of Federal spleen 
was vented in the not very creditable debates on these two 
bills. The Democrats fully retorted in the discussion of a 
bill, which also failed to pass, to repay to Massachusetts and 
•Connecticut their advances for local defense during the war 
— advances of which a large amount, amid millions squan- 
dered on more favored States, remains unpaid to this day. 

The President recommended a peace establishment of 
20,000 men. The House wished to reduce it to 6000 ; the 
Senate preferred 15,000; 10,000 was finally agreed to as a 
compromise. Two major generals, four brigadiers, and the 
necessary number of staff, regimental, and company officers, 
were to be selected by the President from those in service. 
The supernumerary officers and men, according to the original 
terms of enlistment, were to be discharged with three months' 
extra pay. An additional bounty in land was also proposed, 
but not carried. 

The flotilla act was repealed, and the remaining gun-boats 
ordered to be sold. The naval establishment was left as it 
stood, with an additional appropriation of ;^200,000 annually, 
for three years, for its gradual increase. A bill for appointing 
the swamp, occupied by Carroll's division. The ditch in front 
was very deep and broad; and the storming column, exposed 



Revolutionary Incidents. 387 

the naval administration, by creating a board of three naval 
officers, to exercise, under the Secretary of the Navy, the 
general superintendence of that department. 

The three national ships at sea when peace was concluded 
did not return without additional laurels. Off Lisbon, the 
■^Constitution engaged in a moonlight action two British sloops 
of war, the Cyane, of twenty-four guns, and the Levant, of 
eighteen. Keeping the wind, and taking a distance favora- 
ble to her long twenty -fours, but too great for the carronades, 
the enemy's principal armament, lierself, as it were, in the 
apex, and the two hostile ships at the opposite angles of a 
nearly equilateral triangle, the Constitution compelled first 
the Cyane and then the Levant to strike, with a lose to her- 
self of only three killed and twelve wounded, and no essential 
damage to the vessel. She then proceeded with her prizes 
to Porto Praya, in the Cape de Verd Islands, whence she 
barely escaped, in a fog, from a squadron of heavy British 
vessels, by which the Levant was recaptured. 

The rendezvous appointed for the Hornet and Peacock, on 
getting out of New York, was Tristran d'Acunha, off the 
€ap8 of Good Hope. Shortly before arriving there, the 
Hornet, Captain Biddle, encountered and captured the brig- 
of-war Penguin, of eighteen guns, just about her match. 
The Penguin suffered very severely, with loss of foremast 
and bowsprit, so that it became necessary to destroy her. 
The Peacock appeared the next day, when both vessels pro- 
ceeded together to the Indian Ocean. As they entered tnat 
sea they were chased by a seventy-four, from which the Hor- 
net escaped with difficulty, being obliged to throw overboard 
almost everything moveable, and returning to New York 
without boat, anchor, or cable, and with but one gun. The 
Peacock, Captain Warrington, kept on her cruise, and in the 
Straits of Sunda, captured the Nautilus, an East India 
cruiser, of fourteen guns. Though told that peace had been 
made, Warrington insisted that the Nautilus should strike to 
him, and he compelled her to do so by a broadside, which 
killed Liix men and wounded eight others. But the next day 
she was given up, and so ended the naval hostilities. 

The whole number of British vessels captured during the 
war, on the lakes and on the ocean, as well by privateers (of 
which there remained some forty or fifty at sea when peace 



888 Historical and 

was consluded) as by national vessels, omitting those recap-- 
tured, was reckoned at seventeen hundred and fifty. Accordino* 
to an official British return, there had been captured or 
destroyed by ships of the royal navy, forty-two American 
national vessels, including twenty-two gun-boats, two hun- 
dred and thirty-three privateers, and fourteen hundred and 
thirty-seven merchant vessels — sixteen hundred and eighty- 
three in all, manned by upward of eighteen thousand sea 
men. The captures by British privateers were not numerous. 

Owing to the early disasters by land, the balance of pris- 
oners had been all along against the Americans. Horrid, 
indeed, were the tales brought bac-k, equal to those of the 
Jersey prison-ship, from Dartmoor and other British depots 
for prisoners, where war had been seen stripped of all its 
gilding, and felt in all its grim horrors. Much feeling was 
also occasioned by an unlucky disturbance which occurred at 
Dartmoor after the peace was known, the guard firing on the 
prisoners and killing several. 

As to the maritime results of the war, the British remained 
very sore. A party, with the London Times at its head, 
bitterly complained that any peace should have been assented 
to before stripping the upstart and insolent Yankees of their 
naval laurels. Madison, on the other hand, exhibited his 
anxiety to avoid the impressment question for the future by 
recommending the passage of an act excluding foreign sea^ 
men from American ships. 

The Algerine war which now broke out, although it con- 
tributed to the making of a naval hero of Decatur, being of 
minor importance, in comparison with the great events which 
we are commemorating, Hildreth disposes of very summarily. 

Just as the late war with Great Britain had broken out, 
the Dey of Algiers, taking offense at not having received 
from America the precise articles in the way of tribute, 
demanded, had unceremoniously dismissed Lear, the consul, 
had declared war, and had since captured an American ves- 
sel, and reduced her crew to slavery. Immediately after the 
ratification of the treaty with England, this declaration of 
war had been reciprocated. Efforts had been at once made 
to fit out ships, new and old, including several small ones 
lately purchased for the proposed squadrons of Porter and 
Perry, and before many weeks Decatur sailed from New 



liE VOLUTION ARY LN'C1DE:STS. oiJi) 

York with the Guerriere, Macedonian, and Constellation 
frigates, the Ontario, new sloop-of-war, four brigs, and two 
schooners. Two days after passing Gibraltar, he fell in with 
and captured an Algerine frigate of forty-four guns, the 
largest ship in the Algerine navy, which struck to the Guer- 
riere after a running fight of twenty-five minutes. A day 
or two after, an Algerine brig was chased into shoal water 
on the Spanish coast, and captured by the smaller vessels. 
Decatur having appeared off Algiers, the terrified Dey at 
once consented to a treaty, which he submitted to sign on 
Decatur's quarter-deck, surrendering all prisoners on hand, 
making certain pecuniary indemnities, renouncing all future 
claim to any American tribute or presents, and the practice, 
also, of reducing prisoners of war to slavery. Decatur then 
proceeded to Tunis and Tripoli, and obtained from both in- 
■demnity for American vessels captured under the guns of 
their forts by British cruisers during the late war. The Bey 
of Tripoli being short of cash, Decatur agreed to accept in 
part payment the restoration to liberty of eight Danes and 
two Neapolitans, held as slaves. 

Later in the season, Bainbridge sailed from Boston with 
the Independence, seventy-four, the Erie sloop-of-war, and 
two smaller vessels. Being joined by the Congress frigate, 
which had carried Eustis to Holland, and by Decatur's squad- 
ron, and finding every thing settled, he had nothing to do 
but to display his force in the ports of the Mediterranean, 
where the eclat of the American naval victories over the 
British caused him to be received with marked respect. A 
little incident which occurred at Malaga deserves notice, as 
showing how natural is the insolence of power, and how 
readily our navy officers could fall into the very practices of 
which we had complained so loudly in the British. A de- 
serter from the Independence, being seized in the streets of 
Malaga by one of her officers, was discharged by the civil 
authority on the claim which he set up of being a Spanish 
citizen. Bainbridge, however, still demanded him, threaten- 
ing, if he were not given up, to land and take him by force, 
-and, if resistance were made, to fire upon the town — threats 
to which the authorities yielded. 

The return of Bonaparte to France excited a momentary 
alarm, lest tlie unsettled questions of impressment and 
33* 



390 Historical and 

neutral rights might again come up ; but liis speedy downfall 
destroyed these apprehensions, and with them the hopes, 
also, of a new harvest to be reaped by neutral commerce. 

The posts of Prarie du Chien and Michilimackinac having 
been re-occupied, steps were taken for the complete pacifica- 
tion of all the northwestern tribes. At a council held at 
Detroit, at which were represented the Scnecas, Delawares, 
Shawanese, Wyandots, Potawatomies of Lake Michigan, Ot- 
tawas, and Chippewas, with some bands, also, of the Winne- 
bagoes and Sauks, and at which the famous Prophet, the 
brother of Tecumseh, was present, the hatchet was formally 
buried as between all these tribes and as between them and 
the United States. Other treaties soon followed, with the 
Potawatomies of Illinois, the Piankeshaws, Osages, lowas, 
Kansas, Poxes, Kickapoos, and various bands of the great 
Sioux confederacy, with several of which formal relations, 
were now first established. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Causes of the War — Debates in Congress — Extracts from Mr. Clay'e 
Speeches on the different phases of the War Question. 

. The causes of this war of 1812, which was now brought 
to an almost immediate conclusion, by the treaty of Ghent, 
and which have been much debated, are best illustrated by 
the speeches of Mr. Clay, its great champion, as well as the 
universal champion of human rights and freedom every- 
where. Mr. Clay, in his urgency for this war, won for himself 
the most enduring basis of that singular personal popularity, 
which has since marked his reputation, as the noblest of 
the sons of "Sam" since his first representative, Wash- 
ington. 

It is remarkable, that the two great nations of western 
Europe, Great Britain and France, while at war with each 
other, should have presumed, that they could do any amount 
of injury to the rights and commercial interests of the United 
States with impunity. The British blockade of 1806 was 
followed by the Berlin edicts, and the British orders in council 
by the edicts of Mihm, and these belligerent powers made 
war on the commerce of a friend, the better to carry on war 
between themselves. The United States were made the 
victim of their rapacity. From February 28, to May 20, 
1811, less than three months, twenty-seven American mer- 
chant-vessels were sent into British ports, prizes to British 
cruisers, for violation of the orders in council, and the British 
admiralty courts were constantly occupied in adjudicating on 
American property, thus brought under their jurisdiction, 
little of which escaped forfeiture for the crime of a neutral 
commerce, and for attempting to enter ports which had no 

391 



392 Historical and 

other blockade than parchment orders. At the same time 
that these outrages were committed on American commerce, 
swelling up to millions annually, British manufactures were 
allowed and encouraged to enter, in neutral bottoms, the very 
ports from which American vessels, laden with American pro- 
duce, were excluded, and for having papers of that destina- 
tion, were captured! 

But Great Britain, having command of the seas, asserted 
another offensive power, in relation to the United States, to 
maintain her maritime ascendancy, by seizing American sea- 
men, on board American merchantmen, and forcing them 
into the British navy, under the pretense of searching for 
British subjects, and claiming their services, while all parties 
knew the wrong that was done. The seizure of the property 
of a neutral power, as a belligerent right, and claiming it as 
forfeited, though sufficiently atrocious, was a much less exas- 
perating offense, than that of forcing neutrals to fight the 
battles of a belligerent. France was wreng ; Great Britain 
was more so. The former had some magnanimity, when it was 
convenient to exercise it ; while the latter seemed bent on 
wrong for the love of it. It is true, that Great Britain pre- 
tended to be fighting for existence, and her own vindicators 
asserted the law of necessity : but that was neither consola- 
tion, nor relief, to those whose rights she violated. 

The truth undoubtedly was, that the United States had 
fallen into contempt, and the time had arrived when it was 
necessary to vindicate their rights. The mission of John 
Henry, into New England, in 1809, acting under the instruc- 
tions of Sir James Craig, governor of Canada, with designs 
against the Union, as proved by Mr. Madison's communications 
to Congress, March 9, 1812, is sufficient evidence, that some- 
thing more than contempt actuated the British government 
in the repeated and aggravated insults and injuries done to 
the government and people of the United States, for a series 
of years, naught abated by time and remonstrance, but ever 
on the increase. The conclusion seemed to have been adopted 
in Europe, that, though the United States had fought once, 
and gained their independence, there was no great danger of 
their fighting again, though insulted and wronged ; that they 
might be injured to any extent with impunity. What else 
could account for the treatment received from France and 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 393 

Oreat Britain, e specially the latter ? Such was the state ot 
things which led to the war of 1812. 

Congress was convoked a month before the regular time, 
in the fall of 1811, and the message of President Madison 
was decidedly in the war tone. The winter was spent in 
notes of preparation, and by the 20th of March, Congress 
Jiad passed, and the President approved, bills of the following 
titles : To fill up the ranks and prolong the enlistment of 
the army; to raise an additional regular force of twenty- 
five thousand men ; to raise six companies of mounted rangers 
for the defense of the western frontier ; to arm the militia ; 
to authorize detachments of militia to fortify the maritime 
frontier ; to repair and fit the entire naval force ; to procure 
camp-equipage, baggage-wagons, etc. ; to purchase ordnance 
and military stores ; to obtain supplies of sulphur and salt- 
peter ; to make further provisions for the corps of engineers ; 
to establish a quartermaster's department, and create com- 
missary-generals ; to provide for the support of the army and 
navy ; and to authorize a loan of eleven millions. 

In the meantime, there had been a vigorous opposition to 
these measures ; but when, on the 1st of April, Mr. Madison 
sent in his special message, with the documents respecting 
Henry's mission, there was a burst of indignant feeling from 
Cono-ress, and from the whole nation, well calculated to unite 
the country in hostile measures. From this time till the 
declaration of war, on the 19th of June, the utmost spirit of 
preparation was manifested in the legislative and executive 
branches of the government, to begin the contest. 

The well-known moderation of President Madison's 3har- 
acter demanded powerful influences, to bring him up to the 
required temper for the responsibilities of this new position, 
as the head of the government ; and there was probably but 
one man who was capable, by his extraordinary power over 
others, of imparting to him the spirit that was needed for 
the time. It hardly need be said, that he was the speaker 
of the House of Eepresentatives — Mr. Clay. By the same 
cause. Congress was ready for the war before the president 
was. He was still laboring in vain at the oar of negotiation, 
with Mr. Foster, the British minister, when an informal 
deputation from the other branch of the government waited 
upon him, with Mr. Clay at their head, and before they 



394 Historical and 

retired the die was cast. Nothing remained but the formal 
act of declaration. 

It may be remarked, that Mr. Clay's feelings in relation 
to the insults and wrongs suffered by the country from Great 
Britain, had been for several years maturing for that course 
of action which he pursued after the struggle commenced, 
and were on various occasions, and in sundry forms, publicly 
expressed — often incidentally. In a speech in the Senate, 
December 25, 1810, in vindication of President Madison's 
occupation of the territory in dispute between the United 
iStates and Spain, eastward from the Mississippi to the line 
of the Perdido, he said — 

" The gentleman [Mr. Horsey, of Delaware] reminds us, 
that Great Britain, the ally of Spain, may be obliged, by her 
connection with that country, to take part with her against 
us, and to consider this measure of the president as justifying 
an appeal to arms. Sir, is the time never to arrive, when 
we may manage our own affairs, without the fear of insult- 
ing his Britannic majesty ? Is the rod of British power to 
be forever suspended over our heads ? — Does Congress put on 
an embargo to shelter our rightful commerce against the 
piratical depredations committed upon it on the ocean ? We 
are immediately warned of the indignation of offended Eng- 
land. Is a law of non-intercourse proposed ? The whole 
navy of the haughty mistress of the seas is made to thunder 
in our ears. Does the president refuse to continue a corres- 
pondence with a minister, who violates the decorum belong- 
ing to his diplomatic character by giving and deliberately 
repeating an affront to the whole nation? We are instantly 
menaced with the chastisement which English pride will not 
fail to inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea, or 
attempt their maintenance by land — whithersoever we turn 
ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us. Already 
has it had too much influence on the councils of the nation. 
It contributed to the repeal of the embargo — that dishonor- 
able repeal, which has so much tarnished the character of our 
government. Mr. President, I have before said on this floor, 
and now take occasion to remark, that I most sincerely desire 
peace and amity with England ; that I even prefer an adjust- 
ment of all differences with her, before one with any other 
nation. But if she persists in a denial of justice to us, or if 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 395 

she avails herself of the occupation of West Florida, to com- 
mence war upon us, I trust and hope that all hearts will unite, 
in a bold and vio;orous vindication of our rights." 

Mr. Clay, foreseeing that war with Great Britain was 
inevitable, had declined ffoins: into the Senate a2:ain, and in 
1811 was elected to the House of Representatives, as the 
more important branch of the public service for the occasion. 
Having- made up his mind, that war was the only course ta 
vindicate the national honor and rights, all his efforts were 
directed to bring about the final measure, from which there 
could be no retreat, till those rights should be ackuowlodged 
and respected. Though Speaker of the House, opportunities' 
were afforded him, in committee of the whole on the state of 
the Union, to express his sentiments; and it was in this field 
that he wielded a paramount influence. His addresses in 
the .secret sessions, while the question of war was pending, 
which, as represented, were most animating and stirring, are 
of course lost ; and but a few of those delivered in public 
debate, are extant. While the bill to raise an additional 
regular force of twenty-five thousand men, was pending,. 
Mr. Clay addressed the House, in committee, on the 31st of 
December, 1811. The following are extracts from this 
speech : 

" Mr. Clay [the Speaker] said, that when the subject of 
this bill was before the House in the abstract form of a 
resolution, proposed by the committee of foreign relations, it 
was the pleasure of the House to discuss it while he was in 
the chair. He did not complain of this course of proceed- 
ing ; for ho did not at any time wish the House, from con- 
siderations personal to him, to depart from that mode of 
transacting the public business which they thought best. 
He merely adverted to the circumstance, as an apology for 
the trouble he was about to give the committee. He was at 
all times disposed to take his share of responsibility, and 
under this impression, he felt that he owed it to his constitu- 
ents and to himself, before the committee rose, to submit to 
their attention a few observations. '^' " ^^ 

" The difference between those who were for fifteen thou- 
sand, and those who were for twenty-five thousand men, 
appeared to him to resolve itself into the question, merely, 
of a short or protracted war ; a war of vigor, or a war of 



396 HiSTOHlCAL AND 

languor and imbecility. If a competent force be raised in 
the first instance, the war on the continent will be speedily 
terminated. He was aware tbat it might still rage on the 
ocean. But where the nation could act with unquestionable 
success, he was in favor of the display of an energy cor- 
respondent to the feelings and spirit of the country. Sup- 
pose one-third of the force he had mentioned (twenty-five 
thousand men) could reduce the country, say in three years, 
and that the whole could accomplish the same object in one 
year ; taking into view the greater hazard of the repulsion 
and defeat of the small force, and every other consideration, 
do not wisdom and true economy equally decide in favor of 
the larger force, and thus prevent failure in consequence of 
inadequate means? He begged gentlemen to recollect the 
immense extent of the United States : our vast maritime 
frontier, vulnerable in almost all its parts to predatory 
incursions, and he was persuaded, they would see that a 
regular force of twenty-five thousand men was not much too 
great during a period of war, if all designs of invading the 
provinces of the enemy were abandoned. * '■•' '■■= 

" The object of the force, he understood distinctly to be 
war, and war with Great Britain. It had been supposed by 
some gentlemen, improper to discuss publicly so delicate a 
question. Ho did not feel the impropriety. It was a sub- 
ject in its nature incapable of concealment. Even in coun- 
tries where the powers of government were conducted by a 
single ruler, it was almost impossible for that ruler to con- 
ceal his intentions when he meditates war. The assembling 
of armies, the strengthening of posts — all the movements 
preparatory to war, and which it is impossible to disguise, 
unfolded the intentions of the sovereign. Does Russia or 
France intend war: the intention is almost invariably known 
before the war is commenced. If Congress were to pass a 
Taw, with closed doors, for raising an army for the purpose 
jf war, its enlistment and organization, which could not be 
done in secret, would indicate the use to which it was to be 
applied ; and we could not suppose England would be so 
blind, as not to see that she was aimed at. Nor could she, 
did she apprehend, injure us more by thus knowing our pur- 
poses, than if she were kept in ignorance of them. She 
may, indeed, anticipate us, and commence the war. But 



Bevolutionary Incidents. 397 

that is what she is in fact doing, and she can add but little 
to the inju: V which she is inflicting. If she chooso to declare 
war in form, let her do so — the responsibility will be with 
her." 

The purpose of this measure having been avowed, all the 
questions of expediency in the nation's taking so momentous 
a step, of course came up for consideration, and were 
required to be solved — of which that of the public finances 
was not among the least. Was the nation prepared for the 
cost? As a matter of fact, the foreign commerce of the 
country, and as a consequence the public revenue, were almost 
entirely ruined by the belligerents. The revenue had fallen 
from sixteen millions to six, and it was scarcely possible to be 
worse. The wrongs inflicted on the country by the operation 
of the British orders in council and the French decrees, were 
not only disastrous to the public revenue, but equally so to 
the interests of private individuals, by the seizure, adjudica- 
tion, and forfeiture of their property afloat on the high seas, 
under plea of a violation of those orders and decrees. The 
business of the country, and the wheels of the government, 
were both in a fair way of being stopped. Things, indeed, 
had come to such a pass, by the operation of these causes, that 
apart from peril of life, and injury to public morals, and as a 
simple question of finance, it was scarcely possible that war 
should not make business, and pay for itself, so far as it 
respected the nation at large, though it should run the gov- 
ernment in debt. In such a state of things it could not be 
worse. 

There was national character, too ; honor, a nation's best 
treasure, trampled under foot, and kicked about Europe as a 
despicable thing. There were thousands of American sailors, 
forced into the British navy, and compelled to fight the bat- 
tles of the British sovereign, without remedy, without hope. 
To the ruin of American commerce were added indignity to 
tl.e nation, by disregarding its remonstrances, and the viola- 
tion of the personal rights of American citizens, by depriving 
them of freedom, and forcing them into a service where they 
owed no allegiance, to the peril of their lives, and the 
destruction of their fortunes — holding them in captivity from 
country, home, and friends. And when the French decrees 
were revoked, as respected American commerce, the British 
34 



398 Historical and 

government held the American government responsible for 
their revocation as respected all other nations, before they 
would repeal the orders in council ! In view of this state of 
things, Mr. Clay said : 

"England is said to be fighting for the world, and shall 
wo, it is asked, attempt to weaken her exertions ? If, indeed, 
the aim of the French emperor be universal dominion (and 
he was willing to allow it to the argument), how much nobler 
a cause is presented to British valor ! But how is her philan- 
thropic purpose to be achieved ? By a scrupulous observance 
■of the rights of others ; by respecting that code of public law 
which she professes to vindicate ; and by abstaining from self- 
aggrandizement. Then would she command the sympathies 
of the world. What are we required to do by those who 
would engage our feelings and wishes in her behalf? To 
bear the actual cuffs of her arrogance, that we may escape a 
chimerical French subjugation! We are invited, conjured, to 
to drink the potion of British poison, actually presented to 
our lips, that we may avoid the imperial dose prepared by 
perturbed imaginations. We are called upon to submit to 
debasement, dishonor, and disgrace ; to bow the neck to royal 
insolence, as a course of preparation for manly resistance to 
Gallic invasion ! What nation, what individual, was ever 
taught, in the schools of ignominious submission, these patri- 
otic lessons of freedom and independence? Let those who 
contend for this humiliating doctrine, read its refutation in 
the history of the very man against whose insatiable thirst 
of dominion we are warned. The experience of desolated 
Spain, for the last fifteen years, is worth volumes. Did she 
find her repose and safety in subserviency to the will of that 
man? Had she boldly stood forth and repelled the first 
attempt to dictate to her councils, her monarch would not be 
now a miserable captive in Marseilles. Let us come home 
to our own history : it was not by submission that our fathers 
achieved our independence. The patriotic wisdom that placed 
you, Mr. Chairman, under that canopy, penetrated the designs 
of a corrupt ministry, and nobly fronted encroachment on its 
first appearancjp. It saw, beyond the petty taxes with which 
it commenced, a long train of oppressive measures, termin- 
ating in the total annihilation of liberty, and, contemptible 
as they were, it did not hesitate to resist them. Take the 



Kevolutionary Incidents. 399 

-experience of the last four or five years, whicli he was sorry 
to say exhibited, iu appearance at least, a different kind of 
spirit. He did not wish to view the past, further than to 
cruide us for the future. We were but yesterday contending 
for the indirect trade — the right to export to Europe the 
coffee and sugar of the West Indies. To-day we are assert- 
ing our claim to the direct trade — the right to export our 
cotton, tobacco, and other domestic produce, to market. Yield 
this point, and to-morrow intercourse between New York and 
New Orleans, between the planters on James river and Rich- 
mond, will be interdicted. For, sir, the career of encroach- 
ment is never arrested by submission. It will advance while 
there remains a single privilege on which it can operate. 
Gentlemen say that this government is unfit for any war, 
but a war of invasion. Wliat, is it not equivalent' to invasion, 
if the mouths of our harbors and outlets are blocked up, and 
we are denied egress from our own waters? Or, when the 
burglar is at our door, shall we bravely sally forth and repel 
his felonious entrance, or meanly skulk within the cells of 
the castle ? '"^ " " " * 

" He [Mr. Clay] was one, who was prepared (and he would 
not believe that he was more so than any other member of 
the committee) to march on in the road of his duty, at all 
hazards. What ! shall it be said, that our amor pairice is 
located at these desks ; that we pusillanimously cling to our 
seats here, rather than boldly vindicate the most inestimable 
ri gilts of the country? While the heroic Daviess, and his 
gallant associates, exposed to all the dangers of treacherous, 
savage warfare, are sacrificing themselves for the good of 
their country, shall we shrink from our duty ?" 

When the army-bill was disposed of, a navy-bill came up, 
which, among other objects, proposed to build a blank number 
of frigates. The most important question was the filling up 
of this blank. Mr. Cheves, of South Carolina, moved for the 
number of TEN. Mr. Rhea, of Tennessee, moved to strike 
out this section, which was negatived by a vote of 52 to 47 — 
a test vote. It was during the pendency of Mr. Rhea's 
motion, that Mr. Clay addressed the committee against it, 
and in favor of the proposal of Mr. Cheves. Mr. Clay said: 

" The attention of Congress has been invited to this 
subject by the president, in hia message, delivered at the 



400 Historical and 

opening of the session. Indeed, had it "been wholly neglected 
by the chief magistrate, from the critical situation of the 
country, and the nature of the rights proposed to he vindi- 
cated, it must have pressed itself upon our attention. But, 
said Mr. Clay, the president, in his message, ohserves : ' Your 
attention will, of coui^se, he drawn to such provisions on the 
subject of our naval force, as may he required for the service 
to which it is best adapted. I submit to Congress the rea- 
sonableness, also, of an authority to augment the stock of 
such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may 
not, at once, be attainable'?' The president, by this recom- 
mendation, clearly intimates an opinion, that the naval force 
of this country is capable of producing efiect ; and the pro- 
priety of laying up imperishable materials was no doubt 
suggested for the purpose of making additions to the navy, 
as convenience and exigencies might direct. 

" It appeared to Mr. Clay a little extraordinary, that sO' 
much, as it seemed to him, unreasonable jealousy, should 
exist against the naval establishment. If, said he, we look 
back to the period of the formation of the constitution, it will 
be found that no such jealousy was then excited. In placing 
the physical force of the nation at the disposal of Congress, 
the convention manifested much greater apprehension of 
abuse in the power given to raise armies, than in that to 
provide a navy. In reference to the navy. Congress is put 
under no restrictions; but with respect to the army, that 
description of force which has been so often employed to sub- 
vert the liberties of mankind, they are subjected to limita- 
tions designed to prevent the abuse of this dangerous power. 
But it was not his intention to detain the committee by a dis- 
cussion on the comparative utility and safety of these two 
kinds of force. He would, however, be indulged in saying, 
that he thought gentlemen had wholly failed in maintaining 
the position they had assumed, that the fall of maritime 
powers was attributable to their navies. They have told you, 
indeed, that Carthage, Genoa, Venice, and other nations, had 
navies, and, notwithstanding, were linally destroyed. But 
have they shown, by a train of argument, that their overthrow 
was in any degree attributable to their maritime greatness? 
Have they attempted, even, to show that there exists in the 
nature of this power a necessary tendency to destroy the 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 401 

nation using it ? Assertion is substituted for argument ; 
inferences not authorized by historical facts are arbitrarily 
drawn ; things wholly unconnected with each other are asso- 
ciated together ; a very logical mode of reasoning, it must 
be admitted ! In the same way he could demonstrate how 
idle and absurd our attachments are to freedom itself. He 
might say, for example, that Greece and Rome had forms 
of free government, and that they no longer exist ; and, 
deducing their fall from their devotion to liberty, the conclu- 
sion, in favor of despotism, would very satisfactorily follow! 
He demanded what there is in the nature and construction 
of maritime power, to excite the fears that have been 
indulged? Do gentlemen really apprehend, that a body of 
seamen will abandon their proper element, and placing them- 
selves under an aspiring chief, will erect a throne to his 
ambition ? Will they deign to listen to the voice of history, 
and learn how chimerical are their apprehensions ? 

" But the source of alarm is in ourselves. Gentlemen fear, 
that if we provide a marine, it will produce collisions with 
foreign nations, plunge us into war, and ultimately overturn 
the constitution of the country. Sir, if you wish to avoid 
foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean surrender 
all your commerce; give up all your prosperity. It is the 
thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves 
you in war. Commerce engenders collision, collision war, and 
war, the argument supposes, leads to despotism. Would the 
counsels of that statesman be deemed wise, who would rec- 
ommend that the nation should be unarmed; that the art of 
war, the martial spirit, and martial exercises, should be pro- 
hibited ; who should declare, in the language of Othello, that 
the nation must bid farewell to the neighing steed, and the 
shrill trump, the spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, 
and all the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war ; 
and that the great body of the people should be taught, that 
national happiness was to be found in perpetual peace alone ? 
No, sir. And yet, every argument in favor of a power of 
protection on land, applies in some degree to a power of 
protection on the sea. Undoubtedly, a commerce void of 
naval protection is more exposed to rapacity than a guarded 
commerce ; and if we wish to invite the continuance of the 
old, or the enactment of new edicts, let us refrain from all 
34* 



402 Historical and 

exertion upon that element where we must operate, and 
where, in the end, they must be resisted." 

It can not hut he seen that this debate is greatly instruct- 
ive, not alone as it shows the position occupied by Mr. Clay, 
hut as it discloses the position of the country, at the time, 
the views of public policy entertained by existing parties, 
the untried condition and ability of the naval force, the want 
of faith in that arm of the public service, and the difficulties 
which were to be encountered in raising it from infancy to 
manhood, and sending it out boldly to assert the rights and 
exemplify the valor of the nation on the deep. 

It is clear enough, that Mr. Clay, though speaker of the 
House of Kepresentatives, and sufficiently tasked in that capac- 
ity, was also a leader in debates, and leader of the party dis- 
})Osed to stir up the nation to a trial of strength with at least 
one of the great transatlantic belligerents, both of which had 
done such wrongs, and offered such insults, to the people and 
government of the United States. The House was accustomed 
to go into committee — thus relieving Mr. Clay from the duties 
of speaker — for the purpose of giving him opportunities to 
express his views on any pending measures, and of availing 
itself of the benefit of his counsels, and of his stirring elo- 
quence. Fresh from the bosom of the patriotic and gallant 
people of the west, himself not behind in these lofty senti- 
ments, animated by the ardor and nerved with the vigor of 
a young statesman, endowed with such facilities of persuasion 
as few men ever possessed, sensitive, not less to public than 
to private honor, thoroughly informed in the foreign relations 
of the government and the capabilities of the United States, 
Mr. Clay viewed with mortification the position of the country, 
and looked with scorn and indignation at the wrongs and in- 
sults of Great Britain and France, which had placed it there 
Unused to arms since the national independence was acquired, 
and that great battle having been fought for freedom — for 
the " lives, fortunes, and sacred honor " of the people — it was 
a great problem what might be the result of a conflict waged 
on such grounds as were at this time presenited, and a great re- 
sponsibility in pushing the nation into it. But the alterna- 
tives were only two : commercial ruin and national debasement 
on the one hand, or bearding the British lion in his den, on 
the other. A young nation born into existence by agony from 



Kevolutioxary Incidexts. 403 

"wliicli there was no escape, was now to measure weapons with 
the oldest and most powerful empire on earth, in defence of 
its honor. The responsibility of a leader in such an enter- 
prise was great. 

Having just come out of the debate on a measure for 
raising a suitable land force, about which all reasonings 
could be based on some tangible probabilities, the navy was 
a subject which could not but be regarded with extreme con- 
cern, in a war with " the mistress of the seas." And yet it 
was a subject that must be approaclied, in a preparation for 
such a war ; and it presented a question that must be dis- 
posed of. Should the sea be abandoned to the foe, and its 
road to national wealth and greatness be surrendered to the 
sole travel of an arrogant highwayman ? Or should a young 
nation, reduced by a visionary policy to gun-boat tactics and 
garrison defenses, like a chicken on a dunghill defying the 
hawk that is sailing downward on his prey, go out in such a 
field against such odds ? It is no wonder that discourage- 
ment, and a feeling like dismay, should have pervaded so 
many minds at the prospect. To begin to build a navy, at 
the moment of going into war with the greatest maritime 
power in the world, was indeed a bold proposal — apparently 
.bordering on presumption. But it was a necessity, before 
the face of which patriotism could not flee — a doom which 
national gallantry was forced to encounter. 

We come now to the discussions in regard to building the 
navy, with the view of chastising the insolence of John Bull 
upon the seas, to the sole dominion and undivided rights 
upon which he had chosen to assert his domineering sov- 
reignty. 

The following remarks of Mr. Clay, on the importance of 
foreign commerce to the people and government of the coun- 
try, and on the intimate connection between a commercial 
and military marine, are not more forcibly stated than true : 

"He considered the prosperity of foreign commerce indis- 
solubly allied to the marine power. Neglect to provide tlie 
one, and you must abandon the other. Suppose the expected 
war with England is commenced, you enter and subjugate 
Canada, and she still refuses to do you justice; what other 
possible mode will remain to operate on the enemy, but upon 
that element where alone you can then come in contact with 



404 Historical and 

him? And if you do not prepare to protect there your own- 
commerce, and to assail his, will he not sweep from the ocean 
every vessel bearing your flag, and destroy even the coast- 
ing trade? But, from the arguments of gentlemen, it 
would seem to be questioned, if foreign commerce is worth 
the kind of protection insisted upon. What is this foreign 
commerce, that has suddenly become so inconsiderable ? It 
has, with very trifling aid from other sources, defrayed the 
expenses of government, ever since the adoption of the pre- 
sent constitution ; iuaintained an expensive and successful 
war with the Indians ; a war with the Barbary powers ; a 
quasi war with France ; sustained the charges of suppress- 
ing two insurrections, and extinguishing upward of forty-six 
millions of the public debt. In revenue, it has, since the 
year 1789, yielded one hundred and ninety-one millions of 
dollars. During the first four years after the commence- 
ment of the present government, the revenue averaged only 
about two millions annually ; during a subsequent period of 
four years, it rose to an average of fifteen millions, annu- 
ally, or became equivalent to a capital of two hundred and 
fifty millions of dollars, at an interest of six per centum per 
annum. And if our commerce be re-established, it will, in 
the course of time, net a sum for which we are scarcely fur- 
nished with figures, in arithmetic. Taking the average of 
the last nine years (comprehending, of course, the season of 
the embargo), our exports average upward of thirty-seven 
millions of dollars, which is equivalent to a capital of more 
than six hundred millions of dollars, at six per centum in- 
terest ; all of which must be lost in the event of a destruc- 
tion of foreign commerce. In the abandonment of that 
commerce, is also involved the sacrifice of our brave tars, 
who have engaged in the pursuit, from which they derive 
subsistence and support, under the confidence that govern- 
ment would aftbrd them that just protection which is due to 
all. They will be driven into foreign employment, for it is 
vain to expect that they will renounce their habits of life. 

" The spirit of commercial enterprise, so strongly depicted 
by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Mitchell], is diffused 
throughout the country. It is a passion, as unconquerable as 
any with which nature has endowed us. You may attempt, 
indeed, to regulate, but you can not destroy it. It exhibits 



Revolutionary Incidents. 405 

itself as well on the waters of tlie western country, as on 
the waters and shores of the Atlantic. Mr. Clay had heard 
of a vessel, built at Pittsburg, having crossed the Atlantic 
and entered a European port (he believed that of Leghorn). 
The master of the vessel laid his papers before the proper 
customhouse officer, which, of course, stated the place of her 
departure. The officer boldly denied the existence of any 
such American port as Pittsburg, and threatened a seizure 
of the vessel, as being furnished with forged papers. The 
affrighted master procured a map of the United States, and 
pointing out the Gulf of Mexico, took the officer t.> the 
mouth of the Mississippi, traced the course of the Missis- 
sippi more than a thousand miles, to the moutli of the Ohio, 
and conducting him still a thousand miles higher, to the 
junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela — ' There,' 
he exclaimed, 'stands Pittsburg, the port from which I 
sailed !' " 

The efforts of Mr. Clay in Congress, and in all his private 
relations, during this season of preparation for war, were 
unremitting, desiring to go into it with unanimity and vigor, 
that it might end with honor and the achievement of the 
objects of the conflict. 

When war was declared, the manifest importance of 
having at the head of the army a man of talents, decision, 
energy, and weight of character, notwithstanding Mr. Clay 
had been trained exclusively in the civil service, suggested 
to the mind of President Madison, that he was the man, and 
he had made up his mind to send in his name to the Senate 
for the office of major-general. Mr. Gallatin — though he 
and Mr. Clay have never been on the best of terms — is 
understood to have said, that he knew of no man so prompt 
and fruitful in expedients for an exigency, as Mr. Clay — a 
qualification, of all others, the most important for a military 
captain. This is the universal opinion uf his character, and 
it has been sufficiently proved. Mr. Madison, doubtless, had 
made this discovery, and it is an interestiog subject of hypo- 
thetical review, what would probably have been the result, 
if Mr. Clay had been put in this important position. None 
who know the man can doubt, that the utmost activity and 
energy would have been displayed in the military operations 
of the country, and that the war might have been brought 



406 Historical and 

to a close in half the time and at half the expense. Whafc 
other consequences might have followed in Mr. Clay's civil 
history, after having worn an epaulet and sword, with credit 
to himself and benefit to his country, is matter of innocent 
conjecture. Mr. Madison, however, was dissuaded from his 
purpose, on the ground that Mr. Clay's services were indis- 
peitsahle in the national councils. The president tendered 
to him the mission to Russia, for important public purposes, 
after the war, and afterward one of the executive depart- 
ments, both of which were declined — doubtless for the rea- 
sons which had induced him to decline the more elevated and 
dignified position of a senator, for the more useful one of a 
commoner. Mr. Monroe afterward offered Mr. Clay a secre- 
taryship at home, and a carte blanche of all the foreign mis- 
sions ; but he preferred the House of Representatives. 

It is well known, that the first year of the war was not 
very creditable to the American arras, and that it was dis- 
heartening to the spirit of the country. The opposition, in 
Congress, heaped upon the administration reproachful censure 
for having engaged in the war, which roused Mr. Clay, not 
only to its vindication, but to some vehement expressions of 
patriotic indignation. In January, 1813, a bill was before 
Congress, to increase the army by twenty additional regi- 
ments. On the 8th of this month, in committee of the 
whole, Mr. Clay noticed these attacks on the government, 
and replied to some invectives on the merits of the war. 

In recording the services of a statesman, in peace or war, 
he is to be represented in the field which he occupies, or in 
which he enacts his part. The roar of artillery and the 
clash of steel are not in the senate of a nation ; but there ^ 
are battles even there. The statesman who sways the coun- 
cils of his country, by his wisdom and eloquence, occupies a 
position more lofty and more commanding, than any other 
public agent. Armies are raised and moved, and fleets scour 
the seas, for pacific functions, or in search of the foe, under 
his orders. He is forced to look on all at home, and all 
abroad — to secure, protect, and vindicate domestic interests 
and rights, against foreign policies and foreign aggressions. 
His tent is the canopy of heaven, and his field the world. 
He fights in war, and fights in peace. There is no repose - 
for him who guards with vigilance and fidelity the public weal. 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 407 

The position whicli Mr. Clay occupied in the war of 1812, 
was eminent. That he had been eminently influential in its 
inception, and in committing the nation to the hazard, could 
not be unknown ; and in view of the adverse events of its 
early history, the opponents of the war and of the adminis- 
tration, fell heavily upon him who had been so active in 
ringing it about. He thus replies : 

" Sir, gentlemen appear to me to forget, that they stand 
on American soil ; that they are not in the British House of 
Commons, but in the chamber of the House of Kepresenta- 
tives of the United States ; that we have nothing to do with 
the affairs of Europe, the partition of territory and sove- 
reignty there, except so far as these things affect the inter- 
ests of our own countr3^ Gentlemen transform themselves 
into the Burkes, Chathams, and Pitts of another country, 
and forgetting, from honest zeal, the interests of America, 
engage with European sensibility in the discussion of 
European interests. If gentlemen ask me, whether I do 
not view with regret and horror the concentration of sucli 
vast power in the hands of Bonaparte, I reply, that I do. I 
regret to see the emperor of China holding such immense 
sway over the fortunes of millions of our species. I regret 
to see Great Britain possessing so uncontrolled a command 
over all the waters of our globe. If I had the ability to 
distribute among the nations of Europe their several portions 
of power and sovereignty, I would say that Holland should 
be resuscitated, and given the weight she enjoyed in the days 
of her De Witts. I would confine France within her natural 
boundaries, the Alps, Pyrenees, and the Eliine, and make 
her a secondary naval power only. I would abridge the 
British maritime power, raise Prussia and Austria to their 
original condition, and preserve the integrity of the empire 
of Eussia. But these are speculations. I look at the politi- 
cal transactions of Europe, with the single exception of their 
possible bearing upon us, as I do at the history of other 
countries, or other times. I do not survey them with half 
the interest that I do the movements in South America. 
Our political relation with them is much less important than 
it is supposed to be. I have no fears of French or English 
subjugation. If we are united, we are too powerful for the 
mightiest nation in Europe, or all Europe combined. If we 



408 Historical and 

are separated and torn asunder, we shall become an easy prey 
to the weakest of them. In the latter dreadful contingency, 
our country will not be worth preserving. 

" Next to the notice which the opposition has found itself 
called upon to bestow upon the French emperor, a distin- 
guished citizen of Virginia, formerly president of the United 
States, has never for a moment failed to receive their kind- 
est and and most respectful attention. An honorable gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, [Mr. Quincy,] of whom I am sorry 
to say, it becomes necessary for mo, in the course of my 
remarks, to take some notice, has alluded to him in a remark- 
able manner. Neither his retirement from public office, his 
eminent services, nor his advanced age, can exempt this pat- 
riot from the coarse assaults of party malevolence. No, sir. 
In 1801, he snatched from the rude hand of usurpation the 
violated constitution of his country, and that is his crime. 
He preserved that instrument, in form, and substance, and 
spirit, a precious inheritance for generations to come ; and for 
this he can never be forgiven. How vain and impotent is 
party rage, directed against such a man ! He is not more 
elevated by his lofty residence upon the summit of his own 
favorite mountain, than he is lifted, by the serenity of his 
mind, and the consciousness of a well-spent life, above the 
malignant passions and bitter feelings of the day. No ! his 
own beloved Monticello is not less moved by the storms that 
beat against its sides, than is this illustrious man by the 
bowlings of the whole British pack, set loose from the Essex 
kennel ! When the gentleman to whom I have been com- 
pelled to allude, shall have mingled his dust with that of 
his abused ancestors, when he shall have been consigned to 
oblivion, or, if he lives at all, shall live only in the treason- 
able annals of a certain junto, the name of Jefferson will 
be hailed with gratitude, his memory honored and cherished 
as the second founder of the liberties of the people, and the 
period of his administration will be looked back to, as one 
of the happiest and brightest epochs of American history — 
an oasis in the midst of a sandy desert. But I beg the 
gentleman's pardon; he has indeed secured to himself a 
more imperishable fame than I had supposed : I think it was 
about four years ago that he submitted to the House of Eep- 
rcsentatives, an initiative proposition for the impeachment of 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 409 

BIr. Jeflferson. The House condescended to consider it. The 
gentleman debated it with his usual temper, moderation, and 
urbanity. The House decided upon it in the most solemn 
manner, and, although the gentleman had somehow obtained 
a second, the final vote stood, one for, and one hundred and 
seventeen against, the proposition ! '-'^ ^ '•' 

" But, sir, I must speak of another subject, which I never 
think of but with feelings of the deepest awe. The gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, in imitation of some of his prede- 
cessors of 1799, has entertained us with a picture of cabinet 
plots, presidential plots, and all sorts of plots, which have 
l)een engendered by the diseased state of the gentleman's 
imagination. I wish, sir, that another plot, of a much more 
serious and alarming character — a plot that aims at the dis- 
memberment of our Union — had only the same imaginary 
existence. But no man who has paid any attention to the 
tone of certain prints, and to transactions in a particular 
quarter of the Union, for several years past, can doubt the 
existence of such a plot. It was far, very far, from my 
intention to charge the opposition witli such a design. No, 
I believe them generally incapable of it. But I cannot say 
as much for some, who have been unworthily associated with 
them, in the quarter of the Union to which I have referred. 
The gentleman can not have forgotten his own sentiment, 
uttered even on the floor of this House, ' Peaceably if we can, 
foreihly if we must,' nearly at the very time Henry's mis- 
sion to Boston was undertaken. The flagitiousness of that 
embassy had been attempted to be concealed, by directing 
the public attention to the price which, the gentleman says, 
was given for the disclosure. As if any price could change 
the atrociousness of the attempt on the part of Great Britain, 
or could extenuate, in the slightest degree, the offense of 
those citizens who entertained and deliberated upon a propo- 
sition so infamous and unnatural ! There was a most 
remarkable coincidence between some of the things which 
that man states, and certain events in the quarter alluded 
to. In the contingency of war with Great Britain, it will 
be recollected, that the neutrality and eventual separation of 
that section of the Union was to be brought about. How, sir, 
has it happened, since the declaration of war, that British 
officers in Canada have asserted to American officers, that this 
35 



410 Historical and 

very neutrality would take place ? That they have so asserted 
can be established beyond controversy. The project is not 
brought forward openly, with a direct avowal of the intention. 
No, the stock of good sense and patriotism in that portion of 
the country is too great to be undisguisedly encountered. It 
is assailed from the masked batteries of friendship, of peace 
and commerce, on the one side, and by the groundless impu- 
tation of opposite propensities on the other. The affections 
of the people there are to be gradually undermined. The 
project is suggested or withdrawn ; the diabolical dramatis 
personoe, in this criminal tragedy, make their appearance or 
exit, as the audience to whom they address themselves, ap- 
plaud or condemn. I was astonished, sir, in reading lately, 
a letter, or pretended letter, published in a prominent print 
in that quarter, and written, not in the fervor of party zeal, 
but coolly and dispassionately, to find that the writer affected 
to reason about a separation, and attempted to demonstrate 
its advantages to the different portions of the Union — deplor- 
ing the existence now of what he terms prejudices against it, 
but hoping for the arrival of the period when they shall be 
eradicated. But, sir, I will quit this unpleasant subject. 

" The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated 
to herself the pretension of regulating our foreign trade, 
under the delusive name of retaliatory orders in council — a 
pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to American 
enterprise, ' Thus far shalt thou go, and no further ' — orders 
which she refused to revoke, after the alleged cause of their 
enactment had ceased ; because she persisted iu the practice 
of impressing American seamen ; because she had instigated 
the Indians to commit hostilities against us ; and because she 
refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce. 
I throw out of the question other wrongs. The war, in fact, 
was announced, on our part, to meet the war which she was 
waging on her part. So undeniable were the causes of the 
war, so powerfully did they address themselves to the feel- 
ings of the whole American people, that when the bill was 
pending before this House, gentlemen in the opposifion, 
although provoked to debate, would not, or could not, utter 
one syllable against it. It is true, they wrapped themselves 
up in sullen silence, pretending they did not choose to debate 



Revolutionary Incidents. 411 

Bucli a question in secret session. While speaking of the* 
proceedings on that occasion, I beg to be admitted to advert 
to another fact which transpired — an important fact, material 
for tlie nation to know, and which I have often regretted had 
not been spread upon our journals. My honorable colleague- 
[Mr, McKee] moved, in committee of the whole, to compre- 
hend France in the war ; and when the question was taken 
upon the proposition, there appeared but ten votes in support: 
of it, of whom seven belonged to this side of the house, and 
three only to the other ! It is said that we were inveigled 
into the war by the perfidy of France ; and that, had she 
furnished the document in time, which was first published in- 
England, in May last, it would have been prevented. I will 
concede to gentlemen everything they ask about the injustice- 
of France toward this country. I wish to God that our 
ability was equal to our disposition to make her feel the 
sense that we entertain of that injustice. The manner of 
the publication of the paper in question, was, undoubtedly, 
extremely exceptionable. But I maintain, that, had it made^ 
its appearance earlier, it would not have had the effect sup- 
posed ; and the proof lies in the unequivocal declarations of 
the British government. I will trouble you, sir, with going 
no further back than to the letters of the British minister,, 
addressed to the Secretary of State, just before the expiration 
of his diplomatic functions. It will be recollected by ther 
committee, that he exhibited to this government a dispatch 
from Lord Castlereagh, in which the principle was distinctly 
avowed that, to produce the effect of a repeal of the orders 
in council, the French decrees must be absolutely and entirely 
revoked as to all the world, and not as to America alone. A 
copy of that despatch was demanded of him, and he very awk- 
wardly evaded it. But on the 10th of June, after the bill 
declaring war had actually passed this House, and was pendino*- 
befoi'e the Senate, (and which, I have no doubt, was known 
to him,) in a letter to Mr. Munroe, he says: ' I have no hesi- 
tation in saying, sir, that Great Britain, as the case has- 
hitherto stood, never did, and never could, engage, without 
the greatest injustice to herself and her allies, as well as to- 
other neutral nations, to repeal her orders, as affecting America 
alone, leaving them in force against other states, upon con- 
dition that France would except, singly and specially, America 



412 Historical and 

from the operation of her decrees.' On the 14th of the same 
month, the hill still pending hefore the Senate, he repeats: 
* I will now say, that I feel entirely authorized to assure you, 
that if you can, at any time, produce a full and unconditional 
repeal of the French decrees, as you have a right to demand 
it, in your character of a neutral nation, and that it be dis- 
engaged from any question concerning our maritime rights, 
we shall be ready to meet you with a revocation of the orders 
in council. Previously to your producing such an instrument, 
which I am sorry to see you regard as unnecessary, you can 
not expect of us to give up our orders in council.' Thus, sir, 
jou see that the British government would not be content 
with a repeal of the French decrees as to us only. But the 
French paper in question was such a repeal. It could not, 
therefore, satisfy the British government. It could not, 
therefore, have induced that government, had it been earlier 
promulgated, to repeal the orders in council. It could not, 
therefore, have averted the war. The withholding of it did 
not occasion the war, and the promulgation of it would not 
have prevented the war. But gentlemen have contended, 
that, in point of fact, it did produce a repeal of the orders in 
•council. This I deny. After it made its appearance in Eng- 
land, it was declared by one of the British ministry, in Par- 
liament, not to be satisfactory. And all the world knows 
that the repeal of the orders in council resulted from the 
inquiry, reluctantly acceded to by the ministry, into the effect 
upon their manufacturing establishments, of our non-impor- 
tation law, or to the warlike attitude assumed by this gov- 
ernment, or to both. ■■•' * '••" '■■' °* 
" It is not to the British principle [of allegiancej, objec- 
tionable as it is, that we are alone to look ; it is to her 
practice ; no matter what guise she puts on. It is in vain to 
assert the inviolability of the obligation of allegiance. It is 
vain to set up the plea of necessity, and to allege that she 
cannot exist without the impressment of her seamen. The 
naked truth is, she comes, by her press-gangs, on board of 
our vessels, seizes OUR native as well as naturalized seamen, 
and drags them into her service. It is the case, then, of the 
assertion of an erroneous principle, and of a practice not 
conformable to the asserted principle — a principle which, if 
it were theoretically right, must be forever practically wrong 



Revolutionary Incidents. 41S 

— a practice which can obtain countenance from no principle 
whatever, and to submit to which, on our part, would betray 
the most abject degradation. We are told, by gentlemen in 
the opposition, that government has not done all that was 
incumbent on it to do, to avoid just cause of complaint on 
the part of Great Britain ; that in particular the certificates 
of protection, authorized by the act of 1796, are fraudulently 
used. Sir, government has done too much, in granting those 
paper protections. I can never think of them without being 
shocked. They resemble the passes which the master grants 
to his negro slave : ' Let the bearer, Mungo, pass and repass 
without molestation.' What do they imply? That Great 
Britain has a right to seize all who are not provided with 
them. From their very nature, they must be liable to abuse 
on both sides. If Great Britain desires a mark by which 
she can know her own subjects, let her give them an ear 
mark. The colors that float from the mast-head should be 
the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and 
the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who 
sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the 
flag. It is impossible that this country should ever abandon 
the gallant tars, who have won for us such splendid trophies. 
Let me suppose that the genius of Columbia should visit one 
of them in his oppressor's prison, and attempt to reconcile 
him to his forlorn and wretched condition. She would say 
to him, in the language of gentlemen on the other side : 
' Great Britain intends you no harm ; she did not mean to 
impress you, but one of her own subjects; having taken you 
by mistake, I will remonstrate, and try to prevail upon her, 
by peaceable means, to release you ; but I can not, my son, 
fight for you.' If he did not consider this mere mockery, the 
poor tar would address her judgment, and say : ' You owe me, 
my country, protection ; I owe you, in return, obedience. I 
am no British subject ; I am a native of old Massachusetts, 
where lived my aged father, my wife, my children. I have 
faithfully discharged my duty. Will you refuse to do yours V 
Appealing to her passions he would continue : ' I lost this eye 
in fighting under Truxton, with the Insurgente ; I got this 
scar before Tripoli ; I broke this leg on board the Constitu- 
tion, when the Guorriere struck.' If she remained still 
35* 



414 Historical and 

unmoved, he would break out in the accents of mingled dis- 
tress and despair, 

' Hard, hard is my fate ! once I freedom enjoyed, 
Was as happy as happy could be ! 
Oh! how hard is my fate, how galling these chains !' 

I will not imagine the dreadful catastrophe to which he would 
be driven by an abandonment of him to his oppressor. It 
will not be, it cannot be that his country will refuse him 
protection," 

Having shown by documentary evidence that there was 
nothing in the alleged repeal of the British orders in council 
that could constitute a ground of pacification, Mr. Clay pro- 
ceeded to the consideration of other points of attack from the 
opposition. The focus of the fires that were poured in, he 
sent back his scorching flames on the assailants of the admin- 
istration. When they averred that those most interested in 
impressment were most opposed to the war, he taunted this 
lack of humanity, and pointed to the sympathy of the West, to 
shame them for such an avowal. He could not believe they 
would so libel themselves, or that they had done justice to their 
constituents. Did not the latter sympathise with their western 
brethren, exposed to the Indian tomahawk? No matter 
whether an American citizen seeks subsistence amid the 
dangers of the deep, or draws it from the bowels of the 
earth, or from agriculture, or from the humblest occupations 
of mechanic life — whatever be his vocation — the rights of 
American freemen are sacred, and when assailed, all hearts 
should unite, and every arm be braced, to vindicate his cause. 
But. the rights of seamen, who brave the hardships and perils 
of the deep, in bold adventure for the common good as well 
as for their own personal advantage, are especially sacred. 

Continuing in this sarcastic vein, well provoked, Mr. Clay 
said : — 

" When the administration was striving, by the operation 
of peaceful measures, to bring Great Britain back to a sense 
of justice, they were for old-fashioned war. And now they have 
got old-fashioned war, their sensibilities are cruelly shocked 
and all their sympathies lavished upon the harmless inhabit- 
ants of the adjoining provinces. What does a state of war 
present ? The united energies of one people arrayed against 



Eevolutionary Incidents. 415 

the combined energies of another ; a conflict in which each 
party aims to inflict all the injury it can, by sea and land, 
upon the territories, property, and citizens of the other — sub- 
ject only to the rules of mitigated war, practised by civilised 
nations. The gentlemen would not touch the continental 
provinces of the enemy, nor, I presume, for the same reason, 
her possessions in the West Indies. The same humane spirit 
would spare the seamen and soldiers of the enemy. The 
sacred person of his majesty must not be attacked ; for the 
learned gentlemen, on the other side, are quite familiar with 
the maxim that the king can do no wrong. Indeed, sir, I 
know of no person on whom we may make war, upon the 
principles of the honorable gentleman, but Mr. Stephen, the 
celebrated author of the orders in council, or the board of 
admirtilty, who authorize and rej^ulate the practice of im- 
pressment ! 

" The disasters of the war admonish us, we are told, of the 
necessity of terminating the contest. If our achievements 
by land have been less splendid than those of our intrepid 
seamen by water, it is not because the American soldier is 
less brave. On the one element, organization, discipline, and 
a thorough knowledge of their duties, exist, on the part of 
the officers and their men. On the other, almost everything 
is yet to be acquired. We have, however, the consolation 
that our country abounds with the richest materials, and that 
in no instance, when engaged in action, have our arms been 
tarnished. At Brownstown and at Queenstown, the valor of 
veterans was displayed, and acts of the noblest lieroism were 
performed. It is true, that the disgrace of Detroit remains 
to be wiped ofl". That is a subject on which I cannot trust 
my feelings ; it is not fitting I should speak. But tliis much 
I will say, it was an event which no human foresight could 
have anticipated, and for which the administration cannot be 
justly censured. It was the parent of all the misfortunes 
we have experienced on land. But for it, the Indian war 
would have been, in a great measure, prevented or termina- 
ted, the ascendancy on Lake Erie acquired, and the war 
pushed on, perhaps to Montreal. With the exception of that 
event, the war, even upon the land, has been attended by a 
series of the most brilliant exploits." 

Fortunately for the country, the labors of Mr. Clay and 



1 

416 Historical and 



T ^■^ I f I I 



liis coac^'utors were not in vain. The navy, on the Atlantic 
and on the lakes, earned for itself an imperishable fame, and 
demonstrated to the full conviction of the American people 
— a most desirable result — the vast importance of sustaining 
and rendering efficient this arm of the national strength. 
The army nobly retrieved its character, and the war was 
ended in the full blaze of the victory of New Orleans, Jan- 
uary 8, 1815. 



The End 



'-^y^ 



